Dr Shah could not find them earlier in development either, such as just after the fetal testes first started putting out testosterone in a 13-day-old embryo.

These males still had androgen receptors in their muscles and elsewhere, so they had masculine bodies, and they experienced the testosterone surge and responded to normally circulating testosterone.

The results were shown that the androgen-like effect of caterpillar fungi was not associated with testosterone, but was probably resulted from their containing ergosterol analogues.