Thursday, October 12, 2006

Spiders on Drugs: "O What A Web We Weave..."


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:

Anonymous said...

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.'

Anonymous said...

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...

charley said...

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.