Two cases of wound myiasis due to Lucilia sericata and L. illustris (Diptera : Calliphoridae)

Abstract

Myiasis is the infestation with dipteran larvae which, at least for certain periods, feed on the host's dead or living tissue, liquid body-substances, or ingested food (Zumpt, 1965). Flies of this type include blowflies, also called greenbottle or bluebottle flies (Calliphoridae), flesh flies (Sarcophagidae), and also house flies (Muscidae)(Krinsky, 1988). The authors have already reported two cases of otomyiasis due to Sarcophaga peregrina (Japanese name : senchi-nikubae) and S. similis (Japanese name : nami-nikubae) (Sarcophagidae), which occurred in September, 1993 (Chigusa et al., 1994). In the present paper we report two cases of wound myiasis due to Lucilia sericata (Japanese name : hirozu-kinbae) and L. illustris (Japanese name : midori-kinbae), which infested an 87-year-old woman and a 37-year-old female patient suffering from schizophrenia in May and June 1994,respectively. Although Hasegawa et al. (1979) reported human myiasis is probably due to L. illustris, identification was done only from the larvae and not the adult fly; therefore, this is the first unequivocal report of human myiasis due to this species in Japan.