1945] 
Myiasis due to Cuterebra 
175 
CUTANEOUS MYIASIS DUE TO CUTEREBRA 
IN MASSACHUSETTS 
By J. Bequaert 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 
The Tumor Diagnosis Service of the Harvard Medical School 
recently referred to me a large maggot said to have been re- 
moved from the human skin. It was readily recognized as a 
bot-fly larva of the genus Cuterebra. As there appears to be no 
previous record of a bot of this type causing cutaneous myiasis 
in man, some further inquiry was made about this case. 
Dr. Rene B. LeClair, of Ware, Massachusetts, who sent in 
the specimen, upon my request gave the following information 
with kind permission to use it in print. The maggot was ex- 
tracted by Dr. LeClair in September, 1945, from the skin of a 
male resident of Ware. It was located about two inches below 
the right nipple in what was thought at first to be a furoncle. 
The posterior spiracles of the maggot showed, however, like a 
“black head” through an opening in the center of the swelling. 
The maggot was fully alive after removal. As now preserved in 
alcohol, it is 15 mm. long, 8 mm. wide and 6 mm. thick. The 
patient’s living conditions are described as of a very low order, 
as he is more often drunk than sober. This may give a clue as 
to how the unusual infection was acquired. 
The genus Cuterebra is restricted to the New World, where 
it is represented by many species attacking a variety of wild 
mammalian hosts and occasionally certain domestic animals. 1 
Three species are definitely known to occur in New England, 
and more particularly in Massachusetts. While the specific 
larval characters of most species are as yet imperfectly known, 
this is fortunately not the case for our three local species. These 
may be readily separated by means of the descriptions and 
figures recently published by E. F. Knipling and A. L. Brody 
(1940, Jl. of Parasitology, XXVI, pp. 33-43, 2 Pis.). The hu- 
man maggot of Ware shows all the characteristic features of 
1 The generic name Cuterebra is here used in the broad sense, to include Bo- 
geria and several other groups which have been separated from it in recent years. 
