Unusual Bot Fly Larva Removed From the Scalp of a Returning Traveler

ORCID

Goddard: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2617-7141

MSU Affiliation

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Department of Agricultural Science and Plant Protection; College of Veterinary Medicine

Creation Date

2026-09-30

Abstract

An aberrant bot fly specimen was removed from the scalp of a patient 3 wk after returning from Belize. The specimen showed little resemblance to the typical human bot fly larva, Dermatobia hominis, prompting a molecular identification using cytochrome oxidase I and II (COI and COII, respectively) mitochondrial DNA sequence regions. A BLAST search was subsequently performed, and both our COI and COII amplicon sequences showed 99–100% match with Dermatobia hominis, despite the specimen’s clearly aberrant morphology. These findings suggest there is much wider variation in Dermatobia larval morphology than previously known or perhaps that there are new or cryptic species within this group.

Keywords

human bot fly, Dermatobia hominis, infestation, Belize, Cuterebra spp

Publication Date

12-5-2024

Publication Title

Journal of Medical Entomology

Publisher

Oxford University Press; Entomological Society of America

First Page

458

Last Page

460

Rights

© The Author(s) 2024

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjae148