134 Accidental or Facultative Parasites 



and abdomen appeared normal. She was not very wasted, and did 

 not think she had lost much flesh, nor was there any marked degree 

 of anemia." 



Shipley gives the following reasons for believing it impossible 

 that these centipedes could have multiplied in the patient's intestine. 

 "The breeding habits of the genus Geophilus are peculiar, and ill 

 adapted for reproducing in such a habitat. The male builds a small 

 web or nest, in which he places his sperm, and the female fertilizes 

 herself from this nest or web, and when the eggs are fertilized they 

 are again laid in a nest or web in which they incubate and in two or 

 three weeks hatch out. The young Geophilus differ but very little 

 from the adult, except in size. It is just possible, but improbable, 

 that a clutch of eggs had been swallowed by the host when eating 

 some vegetables or fruit, but against this is the fact that the Geophilus 

 does not lay its eggs upon vegetables or fruit, but upon dry wood or 

 earth. The egg-shell is very tough and if the eggs had been swallowed 

 the egg-shells could certainly have been detected if the dejecta were 

 examined. The specimens of the centipede showed very little signs 

 of being digested, and it is almost impossible to reconcile the story 

 of the patient with what one knows of the habits of the centipedes." 



In none of the observed cases have there been any clear indica- 

 tions as to the manner of infestation. It is possible that the myria- 

 pods have been taken up in uncooked fruit or vegetables. 



LEPIDOPTEROUS LARVAE 



Scholeciasis Hope (1837) brought together six records of infesta- 

 tion of man by lepidopterous larvae and proposed to apply the name 

 scholeciasis to this type of parasitism. The clearest case was that 

 of a young boy who had repeatedly eaten raw cabbage and who 

 vomited larvae of the cabbage butterfly, Pieris brqssicce. Such cases 

 are extremely rare, and there are few reliable data relative to the 

 subject. In this connection it may be noted that Spuler (1906) has 

 described a moth whose larvae live as ectoparasites of the sloth. 



COLEOPTERA 



Canthariasis By this term Hope designated instances of acci- 

 dental parasitism by the larvae or adults of beetles. Reports of 

 such cases are usually scouted by parasitologists but there seems no 

 good basis for wholly rejecting them. Cobbold refers to a half 

 dozen cases of accidental parasitism by the larvae of Blaps mortisaga. 



