From Reuters’ Oddly Enough column:
Boy Breeds Eggs in His Body, Produces Beetles?
Tue June 17, 2003 08:39 AM ET
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A 13-year-old Indian boy has begun producing winged beetles in his urine after hatching the eggs in his body, a senior medical official said Monday.
Doctor Chittaranjan Maity, Medical Education Director of West Bengal state where the boy is from, said doctors found the beetles while examining him for pain in the groin area.
“Doctors were really surprised to see the beetles,” he told Reuters. “There are eggs of the beetle in a fistula in his body and he is getting medical treatment to try to kill the eggs,” Maity said.
The boy had been taken to hospital Sunday after complaining of pain while urinating.
The beetles — more than half a centimeter in length — belong to the Staphylinidae rove beetle family of insects. Most types are predators but some feed on fungi, algae and decaying plant matter.
An expert in urology, Doctor N. Subramanian, said that in theory it was possible for insects to hatch in the body and come out in urine but said he had not heard of such a case.
(Courtesy Boing Boing)
Recent Quackings