A centipede 4 inches long infested the ear of a teenager living in Arkansas. This highly unusual invasion made news on social media around the globe.
Grant Botti woke up on the morning of June 30 with a powerful pain in one ear. Feeling something unusual in the organ, the 14-year-old decided to pull out the blockage. When he did so, he found a centipede, 4 inches in length, had taken up residence in his ear canal.
Angela Botti, mother to the teen, packaged the still-living animal in a plastic bag, and brought it, along with her son, to Saline Memorial hospital.
A doctor examined the ear, finding the animal had caused slight damage to Grant's ear. The teen was treated and released following the incident.
Centipedes are arthropods, and possess a pair of legs for each segment of their body. Despite the name, centipedes can have a diverse number of legs, from as few as 20 to over 300. Strangely enough, biologists have never found a centipede with exactly 100 legs.
The largest centipedes in the world are found in climates around the globe, from deserts to the depths of caves deep beneath the surface of the Earth. While the smallest of these creatures grows to just around one-eighth of an inch in length, the longest can be 12 inches long as an adult. Most are brown or shades of dark red, while those living in the deepest caves often have no pigmentation whatsoever.
These creatures, the largest invertebrate predators living on the land today, often lack eyes, although some species of centipedes possess ocelli, which can group together to form compound eyes. The front pair of limbs of the creatures, extending from the front of the head, can exhibit sharp claws. In some species, these can inject a toxin into their prey during the hunt for food, or in self-defense. Bites from these creatures can be painful to humans, but are usually not dangerous.
Centipedes can often be found hiding under rocks, or living in stumps in most backyards. They often seek out moist environments, since they are less able to store water than arachnids and insects due to the lack of a waxy cuticle.
Grant's family is uncertain where the young man attracted the arthropod, but said he had recently been swimming outdoors.
Hospital staff have not stated what became of the animal removed from the teenager's ear.
"Doctors and nurses at Saline Memorial told the family they have seen people come in with all kinds of things in their ears, but that centipede was a first," Beth Hunt wrote for KATV, the local ABC affiliate.
Photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab | Flickr
