[5] Generally, when an insect (or host) comes in contact with Batkoa spores, they enter its body through leg joints or other chinks in its armor or through gaps in the 'skin'.
As the fungi begin to overwhelm the insect, it stops eating, mating and crawls (or flies short distances) to a high, exposed place like on the side of a tree trunk or at the tip of a tall grass blade.
There the fungus sends out threadlike hyphae from within the bug and attaching the insect to its perch, securely.
The Batkoa fungus somehow triggers the host insect to open its wings fully, exposing its soft abdomen completely.
[6] Batkoa major is known to infect the invasive spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) in north-eastern North America,[7] including Pennsylvania.
[9] Batkoa major is also a host on the ptilodactylid beetle (Ptilodactyla serricollis in Maine and North Carolina.
[11] Batkoa apiculata has also been reported discovered on 3 species of aphid in France (Thoizon, 1970) and while in Poland, it was found on a wide range of insects (Balazy, 1993).