In 1948, the Swiss pharmacologist Peter N. Witt began to investigate the effects of drugs on spiders. It all started because his friend, zoologist H. M. Peters, asked him to find a way to change the time spiders build their fabrics.
The garden spiders of Peters wove from two or five in the morning until dawn.
This bothered the zoologist, so Witt was inspired to investigate his friend's request. Peter N. Witt tested the effects on arachnids in various psychoactive drugs, such as amphetamines, mescaline, strychnine, LSD and caffeine. His studies showed him that drugs affected the size and shape of fabrics instead of modifying the time in which they were manufactured.
With small doses of caffeine (10 micrograms per spider) the nets were smaller, the rays were uneven, but the circumferences were still perfect. With 100 micrograms of caffeine per spider, the shape changed more and the design of the fabric ended up being very irregular. All the drugs supplied made the fabrics that spiders made under their effects more irregular, except for LSD, which caused the opposite to happen.
The drugs were administered by mixing them with water and sugar. A drop of this mixture was put in the spiders' mouth with a syringe, although in later studies they were drugged with flies that had been mixed with the substance. The spider webs were photographed both before supplying the animal with the drug and afterwards. Witt's research was not continuous, but she regained prominence when in 1984 J.A. Nathanson revived her for the publication Science. In 1995, NASA and its researchers repeated Witt's experiments to test the effects of caffeine, benzedrine, marijuana and chloral hydrate on European garden spiders.
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are the result of an experiment in which arachnids were given different kinds of substances. Actually, these arachnids were fed by scientists for several days with flies impregnated in different stimulants. The really interesting thing is that the web created under the influence of caffeine (legal substance and that you consume every day, I think) is the one that is worse built.
Cobweb constructed under the effects of LSD:
Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD or LSD-25 is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family. It is one of the best known and most powerful psychedelics. It induces altered states of consciousness, sometimes compared with those of schizophrenia or mystical experience. Colloquially, it is known as acid, tripi or tripe.
Web built under the influence of Mescaline:
Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenylethylamine) is an alkaloid of vegetable origin with psychedelic and hallucinogenic properties. It was isolated from peyote for the first time in 1896 and is also present in some other cacti such as San Pedro. The plant forms are usually taken after drying the cactus, since its active ingredients are not volatile.
Web built under the influence of hashish:
Hashish is a psychotropic drug derived from cannabis. It is extracted when detaching from the flowers of cannabis, the trichomes that cover it. Solid in appearance, it becomes malleable when heated. It is brown with reddish, black, greenish and golden reflections, it is usually smoked in a pipe, mixed with tobacco or cannabis buds.
Cobweb constructed under the influence of Caffeine:
Caffeine is a psychoactive alkaloid of the xanthine group, a crystalline, white, bitter-tasting solid that acts as a psychoactive drug, slightly dissociative and stimulant due to its non-selective antagonist action on adenosine receptors. In humans, caffeine is a stimulant of the central nervous system that produces a temporary effect of restoring the level of alertness and eliminating drowsiness.
This is the spider web of a spider that said no to drugs haha:
You can see how this web is apparently well built.
What conclusions can we draw from these images? If you are a spider and use drugs, give up this habit which is slowly destroying your brain. Out of joke, drug addiction destroys you and others around you.
Happy week-end for everyone, say no to drugs :D.