PROCEEDINGS O F THE ROYAL ENTOhfOLOGICAL SOCIETY

O F LONDON

SERIES A. GENERAL ENTOMOLOGY

VOLUME 11. 1936.

LARVAE OF LUCILIA SERICATA NG., FROM A CASE OF AURAL MYIASIS REPORTED FROM ESSEX (DIPTERA)

By JOHN SMART, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.

(British Museum, Natural History.)

SOME larvae of Lucilia sericata were received last summer for identification from Dr. Scott of Stansted, Essex. A clinical report of the case from which they were taken, by Drs. K. F. Platt and J. A. Scott, has appeared inDec. 1935, Brit. med. J., 1935 (3909) : 1099-1100, but the occurrence is of sufficient importance to entomologists to warrant the exhibition of the larvae to the Society and a brief record of the facts.

Briefly stated the case ran as follows : the patient, an agricultural labourer, attended a t a surgery on the 25th July, 1935, complaining of acute pain in, and a bloody discharge from, his left ear. He told the doctor that two days previously a fly had entered the ear, " buzzed about a minute or two '' and come out. The next day the ear became painful and after a sleepless night he reported to the doctor for treatment. The doctor examined the ear and found a mass of larvae packed together in the meatal canal. Syringing with dettol ( 2 drachms to 1 pint water) caused the maggots to move violently, thus breaking up the dense mass in which they were packed and they were then easily removed. The tissues of the ear were congested and swollen but no perforation of the drum was seen. To ward against secondary infection ear drops (spirit and perchloride) were prescribed and in four days' time except for a slight thickening of the tympanum the ear had returned to normal.

Thirty-one larvae were removed from the ear and 5 of these were sent to me and identified as L. serimtffi.

The case is of interest as it appears to be unique. Writing in 1912 (Rept. Local Gout. Bd. Pub. Health Med., 66) Austen had no cases of aural myiasis to report from Great Britain, and a search of the literature subsequent to that date has not revealed any cases. Cases have been reported frequently from America, but the insects concerned are Cochliomyia spp. Infestations of Cochliomyiffi result in a great deal more damage than that reported in the above case. Penetration of the drum may occur (1923, Davis, A. L. L., U.S. Naval Med. Bull., 19 : 345 records two typical cases). I n the present case it is unfortunately not known whether any pathological condition existed in the ear prior to the oviposition of the female fly or not.

PROC. R. ENT. SOC. LOND. (A) 11. PT. 1-2. (MAR. 1936.) B