What’s That Mosquito Bite Growing On My Leg?

Tara over at Aetiology posts about botflies…

Do you know what botflies are? They’re flies that capture mosquitoes and lay their eggs on them, and when that mosquito bites something, the larva hatch out from the eggs, drop onto their host, and implant themselves under the skin. A maggot grows, getting it’s nurishment from the host. After a while, it hatches. You know, that cycle of life thing.

While prepping a speciman of a rat in Ecuador a couple of years, I encountered my first botfly.

I had always thought of them as small. I mean, how big do maggots get, right? This thing wasn’t much smaller than my thumb, and formed an enormous bulge on the stomach of the rat. We cut it out because one of the students with us had a friend doing phylogentic work on botflies. I caught a whiff of the smell and gagged. I think a few deep breaths would have been all that’s necessary for me to have lost breakfast.

A commenter on Tara’s post describes how we biologists view our parasites.

There’s a sort of macho, cowboy ethic among tropical biologists; they treasure their disgusting parasite experiences the way that a war veteran treasures his medals. The really cool kids are the ones who let the critters grow until they come out on their own to pupate. I once worked for a guy who did that. He let the thing grow to maturity in his cheek.

The cowboy ethic I understand and share. (For example I’ve been bitten by a Rottweiler while looking for a Rufous-backed Robin in south Texas and love to tell the story) Cool kids letting the parasites grow out of them? I can handle not being as cool as the other biologists. I would sooner take a knife to my leg that let this grow out of me.

And no, I’ve never gotten a botfly. Yet. I’ve been in the right areas. It’s only a matter of time. I like to think of it as a goal. A milestone to reach on my path to success.