Many years ago--it had to have been in the late '70s or early '80s--I visited the Forest Service Museum in Flagstaff, AZ, and there I saw an exhibit of photographs of spiders' webs which had been constructed by the animals under the influence of various knds of mood- and mind-altering pharmacological products. No small number of people to whom I had described this experience over the years expressed doubt about my description of the phenomena I witnessed.Google to the rescue.
The spider web pictured on the left here was created by a 'straight' spider. The web on the right, however, was created by a spider which had consumed a fly laced with LSD. Spiders have also been dosed with caffein, chloral hydrate, meth-amphetymine, and cannabis, and the resulting webs have been photographed.
Results of those experiments may be seen here.
3 comments:
I remember seeing those in a biology lab. at school. Rather a good bit of education about drugs - not 'just say no' but rather 'these things will screw you up. FACT.'
I too recall those pictures when I took a psych class back in the early 70's. I also fondly recall my own experiences with "sunshine" acid back in 1969-70. Best.mind.altering.experience.ever...
as has already been noted these pics are in every psyche 101 book.
i also remember doing the google thing to convince doubters.
Spiders on marijuana made a reasonable stab at spinning webs but appeared to lose concentration about half-way through.
that's the one that always tickled me.
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