Caterpillars making monkeys high

[C6H6]

Some time ago I watched a documentary on TV. There they showed some monkeys which collect a certain type of caterpillars or very big maggot or something of this sort. By squeezing and handling the caterpillars, these animals excrete some defensive juice. The monkeys lick it off their hands, and it caused them to become real excited and "high". They don't eat the caterpillars, but use them as "recreational drug".

This is from my recollection. Has anyone else hard about this? I would appreciate any additional information.

 

[fastandbulbous]

They're millipedes, and it's lemurs doing the millipede teasing...

They reckon it has something to do with removing parasites, but if you've seen them doing it, after about 5 minutes the lemurs look like they've just had a hit of smack (they end up dropping the limmipede, in a semi-nod. Same way people drop cigarettes, cups of tea etc).

Got top admit it looks really funny - lemurs on smack!

 

[p-mo]

So do we know whats in these millipedes and why they seem to get a drug effect off them?

 

[Tongue]

what i wonder is what deep emotional conflict those monkeys are avoiding...i mean, they need to go to NA////

 

[cool_cow]

...dose this work on humans???

 

[C6H6]

They're millipedes, and it's lemurs doing the millipede teasing...

They reckon it has something to do with removing parasites, but if you've seen them doing it, after about 5 minutes the lemurs look like they've just had a hit of smack (they end up dropping the limmipede, in a semi-nod. Same way people drop cigarettes, cups of tea etc).

Got top admit it looks really funny - lemurs on smack!

Yeah, that's exactly the story, fastandbulbous! Good job recognizing it from my rather inaccurate tale!

I found two Pubmed references which seem to have some relevance, but no abstract is available:

Zito M, Evans S, Weldon PJ.
Owl monkeys (Aotus spp.) self-anoint with plants and millipedes.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 2003 May-Jun;74(3):159-61.
PMID: 12826735

Birkinshaw CR. Related Articles, Links
Use of millipedes by black lemurs to anoint their bodies
Folia Primatol (Basel). 1999;70(3):170-1.
PMID: 10394067

A preliminary Google search didn't yield anything useful.

 

[BilZ0r]

PDFs
Zito M, Evans S, Weldon PJ.
Owl monkeys (Aotus spp.) self-anoint with plants and millipedes.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 2003 May-Jun;74(3):159-61.

Birkinshaw CR. Related Articles, Links
Use of millipedes by black lemurs to anoint their bodies
Folia Primatol (Basel). 1999;70(3):170-1.

Looks like a false lead.

 

[C6H6]

Hmm. The 1,4-benzoquinones would be nice precursors for psychedelic PEAs.