Botfly horror

by Chadden Hunter for Amazon under the skin, 25 July 2007

The Amazon jungle literally gets under the skin of Chadden Hunter when he finds a botfly larvae living in his leg.

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Chadden Hunter tries to get to grips with a bot fly maggot.

An adult bot fly

The larvae, if left in Chadden's leg, would eventually turn into a large, adult fly. There are many species of botfly, some of which use an intermediary such as a housefly to carry the egg to the skin of the host where it hatches into a maggot.

Different flies lay their eggs on different kinds of hosts. When Steve Backshall came across a strange looking creature in the forests of Papua New Guinea it turned out to be a caterpillar that looked as if it was being eaten alive.