Answer to the Parasite Case of the Week 794: Winged insect, likely contaminant.
Many of you asked if this could be Pediculus humanus - a thought that I also initially shared. However, Blaine Mathison nicely pointed out that this insect has a wing, which rules out lice, as they are wingless. Here is his annotated image:
Based on this finding, it is likely that this is just a contaminant or inconsequential finding. It doesn't explain the patient's symptoms, and therefore further investigation is warranted.
Thanks again to Dr. Steven Ruhoy and Tracie Rose for donating this challenging case!
4 comments:
how can you tell this is a wing as opposed to another leg?
Great question. The location would be odd to begin with, given that this appears to be a clean lateral cut through the insect and all of the legs are on the left hand side of the insect's body. Also, the same musculature is not seen in the wing base as with the eggs. On a related note, the eye is too large to be that of a louse (in case that was what you were considering).
I would definitely think it’s a dipteran but was hoping for a clearer answer 😆 by the thoracic musculature id dare say it was a good flyer too
I wish I could have provided a better answer! Given that it is in such good shape, I think we can conclude that it was a contaminant - probably from the tissue preparation process (rather than actually being on the bottom of the patient's foot!), but unfortunately I can't go any further in my identification 😊
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