Tryptamines Psychedelic Cicadas

[G_Chem]

Awesome discovery, I’m not kidding when I say I’m gonna plop a Cicada right in my mouth next time I get chance. (Alright maybe I am..) Pop the juicy bugger as he tries to bite his way out.

Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens

Entomopathogenic fungi routinely kill their hosts before releasing infectious spores, but a few species keep insects alive while sporulating, which en…

www.sciencedirect.com

So I’ve known about this fungus from before, it happens to infect Cicadas and turns them into mating crazy zombies that will half their body missing and still moving. I’ve seen them before, very interesting.

Well they found that this fungi produces both psilocybin AND cathinone in the Cicada to help keep it happy. I could see it, psilocybin for the fear extinction and cathinone to keep it blissfully happy and horny as a goat on meth.

It makes me wonder if there’s health risks with ingesting cicadas or this fungi lol. That sounds like one hell of a trip, but I don’t wanna turn into a zombie either.

Levels so low you’d need to eat a forest full but that’s possible every so often right? Lol.

-GC

 

[Skorpio]

You are on a roll with these rare psychadelics.

 

[thegreenhand]

“Here we report the discovery, through metabolomics, of the plant-associated amphetamine, cathinone, in four Massospora cicadina-infected periodical cicada populations…”

You might get some nice speed too lol

Fascinating stuff

 

[Skorpio]

I guess the next questions are: "how do you identify infected cicadas? Where is this endemic? Is there a way to cultivate this?"

 

[thegreenhand]

I guess the next questions are: "how do you identify infected cicadas? Where is this endemic? Is there a way to cultivate this?"

Synthetic routes of cathinone and psilocybin production will probably be much cheaper for a long while if that’s what you’re getting at.

In terms of cultivating for further research, I suppose some form of urine or feces sampling could be done much like what we do to test people for various illicit substances

 

[Snafu in the Void]

holy shit, I've known about these "zombie" fungi/parasites, but it actually drugs it's host while it feeds?? wow

nature is hardcore

 

[Skorpio]

Synthetic routes of cathinone and psilocybin production will probably be much cheaper for a long while if that’s what you’re getting at.

In terms of cultivating for further research, I suppose some form of urine or feces sampling could be done much like what we do to test people for various illicit substances

Yeah, i doubt this would be a viable source of these drugs, more of a quirky natural combo. Cicada flipping.

Also can hope that there are other secondary metabolites that weren't in the screening library they used.

 

[G_Chem]

I guess the next questions are: "how do you identify infected cicadas? Where is this endemic? Is there a way to cultivate this?"

So after looking into the paper more it seems the levels are too low unfortunately for any use psychotropic effects At least from what I see.

Roughly ~125ng of cathinone on average per “plug” aka cicada. The plug being the fungal mass that replaces part of their abdomen.

I wonder if they have direct access to the brains of these insects to get them fucked up, I suppose that dose might also be the correct concentration to get a Cicada high as a kite.

Cool though because the pathways to these drugs may be novel.

-GC

 

[thegreenhand]

Also can hope that there are other secondary metabolites that weren't in the screening library they used.

Probability wise I feel like there should be something they didn’t catch

Roughly ~125ng of cathinone on average per “plug” aka cicada. The plug being the fungal mass that replaces part of their abdomen.

I wonder if they have direct access to the brains of these insects to get them fucked up, I suppose that dose might also be the correct concentration to get a Cicada high as a kite.

I wonder if this ‘plug’ area of the abdomen is in close proximity to the bug’s digestive tract. Admittedly, I’m unfamiliar with cicada anatomy but a lot of animals have many nerve cells there.