Diptera.info

Posted by Cesa on 01-06-2011 10:10

Hello,
Sorry for the unsharp images. They are from the intestine of a child. Photographs were taken in a local hospital in Van prov. (East Turkey). Any comment will be very much appreciated. Muhabbet

Edited by Cesa on 02-06-2011 05:58

Posted by Cesa on 01-06-2011 10:11

Cesa wrote:
Hello,
Sorry for the unsharp images. They are from the intestine of a child. Photographs were taken in a local hospital in Van prov. (East Turkey). Any comment will be very much appreciated. Muhabbet

Posted by Cesa on 01-06-2011 10:19

Cesa wrote:

Posted by Cesa on 01-06-2011 10:19

Cesa wrote:

Posted by Cesa on 01-06-2011 10:20

Cesa wrote:

Posted by Paul Beuk on 01-06-2011 12:04

Coleoptera, but I don't have any literature to look further here at home and I won't be back at the office until next Monday.

Posted by Cesa on 02-06-2011 05:42

Dear Tony Irwin,
I agree with you in identification. Many thanks for your help on this matter.
This is an interesting case. It is said that this is an old clinical case. It is also said that during about two months, abortion of these larvae (20-30 specimens) from digestive system of a child was made by using some medicine. The questions that couldnot be anwered are: How these larvae could live in stomach and also in the intestine of this child. It seems not to be a parasitism, as we have no knowledge on this point about the cantharid larvae. Is there any info in the literature on such a case?

Posted by Grigory Popov on 02-06-2011 19:21

#10

Children are a strange creatures, and the more so that everything lying (c);)

Edited by Grigory Popov on 02-06-2011 19:22

Posted by Tony Irwin on 02-06-2011 19:53

#11

I don't think these were living in the child's intestine. I think it more likely that the child was swallowing them and they passed through undamaged. The cuticle of a cantharid larva is covered with very small hairs - like velvet - so it is difficult for liquids (including digestive juices) to get to the larva. If they were swallowed, they would die from asphixation, but otherwise be intact and pass through the digestive tract. Cantharid larvae are active all year, especially in winter, and they often come indoors, so might easily be spotted by a child. When she was quite young, my sister used to eat larvae of the House Moth, Hofmannophila. Children can do strange things sometimes.

Edited by Tony Irwin on 02-06-2011 19:54

Posted by Grigory Popov on 02-06-2011 20:22

#12

Tony Irwin wrote:
I don't think these were living in the child's intestine. I think it more likely that the child was swallowing them and they passed through undamaged. The cuticle of a cantharid larva is covered with very small hairs - like velvet - so it is difficult for liquids (including digestive juices) to get to the larva. If they were swallowed, they would die from asphixation, but otherwise be intact and pass through the digestive tract. Cantharid larvae are active all year, especially in winter, and they often come indoors, so might easily be spotted by a child. When she was quite young, my sister used to eat larvae of the House Moth, Hofmannophila. Children can do strange things sometimes.

Oh, yes! Especially if the larva nice and velvety :)