Infected adult dipteran hosts (flies from Anthomyiidae, Fanniidae, Muscidae, and Scathophagidae orders) develop a large hole in their abdomens, through which conidia (spores) are then actively discharged while the hosts are still alive.

[2] While most fungi spore once the host is dead, with the Strongwellsea fungus, the flying host continues to live for days and also socialising with other flies while the fungus consumes its genitals, fat reserves, reproductive organs, and then finally its muscle, as it continues to emit thousands of spores on to other individuals and hosts.

If they land on another fly host, they stick to the cuticle and then migrate their way into the abdomen, where they start to generate spores.

[7] In lab tests in 1992, Strongwellsea castrans was isolated in vitro and then incubating conidia was projected from infected cabbage root flies (Delia radicum).

[8] The genus was circumscribed by Andrzej Batko and Jaroslav Weiser in J. Invertebr.