External ophthalmomyiasis caused by the sheep bot Oestrus ovis L.

A 17-year-old girl presented to the Casualty Department of St Paul's Eye Hospital, Liverpool, with a foreign body sensation in the right eye for 2 days. Two days previously she was on a beach in Palma Nova in Majorca. She thought sand had blown into her eye. She did not remember ever having been struck in the eye or face by any insects. On examination the conjunctiva of the right eye was mildly congested. On slit-lamp examination 3 maggots or larvae were found in the conjunctival sac. The larvae were transparent and small, measuring about 1 mm in length, visible only with high magnification on the slit-lamp. Interestingly, the larvae were 'photophobic', moving away from the light of the slit-beam to hide in the depth of the conjunctival sac. The larvae were removed with forceps and stored iX a formalin solution. A lacrimal sac wash-out was attempted but later abandoned because of a tight punctum. Chloramphenicol drops 05% were instilled. Fundal examination revealed no abnormality, and the anterior chamber was quiet. The same evening the patient returned and complained of a foreign body sensation in the right eye again. This time she described it as 'something crawling' in her eye. Another maggot was found and removed. Cocaine can apparently paralyse the