Sunday, January 15, 2012

Case of the Week 191

The following arthropods were found on a 50-year old man and were submitted for identification to the clinical parasitology laboratory. No further history was given. Identification?
Anyone have any idea what the 2 arthropods on the right are doing?





7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could it be two males Arthropods fighting to see who will mate with the female Arthropod (on the left). =)

MMLNE

MicrobeMan said...

Those nasty little critters look like bedbugs to me.

Vanessa CH said...

Body lice - Pediculus humanus. Could also be head lice, but if they're surviving in a dish they're more likely to be body lice as these tend to be hardier away from their hosts.

Anonymous said...

Body Lice.
The 2 lice on the right could be mating? One louse looks smaller, this may be the male.

Lukus Roberts said...

definatly pediculus humanus but wether it is body lice (P. humanus humanus) or head lice (P. humanus capitus) is hard to say (at least for me!) head lice are smaller and I think the abdominal segments are more pronouced? but other than that I can't say.

I think the louse on the left (the larger individual) is a female and the two to the right are males as they are smaller. Perhaps the males are fighting for mating rights due to the close proximity of the female?

MicrobeMan said...

Yep - lice. Upon a longer second look, I change my mind.

Anonymous said...

Louse on left head louse.
Lice on right mating body lice.