A jumping spider was found in a woman’s ear after a few painful days

As the video shows, the spider had built a nest on her eardrum. As you know, this year, brain worms made terrible headlines. But before Halloween, the staff of the New England Journal of Medicine introduced the public to a new nightmare: the jumping spider inside the ear. There is also a video of this case.

In a clinical report published this week, doctors in the city of Tainan, Keshu, Taiwan, described the problem of a 64-year-old woman who visited an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) clinic. He came to the clinic and explained about the ringing in his left ear for the past four days. The woman said that on the first day, she felt a small creature crawling inside her ear canal, which caused her to wake up. In the following days, this feeling turned into clicks, bangs and hisses.

It didn’t take long to find the cause of the problem; During the physical examination, the doctors could easily see a spider moving in its small and cozy nest. This spider was definitely not alone. The spider had molted in these four days and its exoskeleton remained inside the ear canal.

There is a video of the crawler moving around the canal and in front of the eardrum. When you see the spider on the medical device, it moves closer to the camera and we can clearly see its eyes.

The medical report does not specify the type of spider, and it is usually very difficult to identify a spider from a photograph. Ares contacted 2 arachnid experts and both of them said that this spider is from the family of jumping spiders. Martin Nieffler (distinguished professor of zoology at the University of Basel) told Ares via email that he had identified the spider’s race through the ratio of the size of the eyes. This family of spiders has large front eyes, which can be clearly seen in the video.

Jumping spiders have excellent eyesight, Kneifler noted. But unfortunately, they also have a lot of movement, which is not pleasant for the patient’s hearing.

According to Naifler, the pictures cannot show the gender or species of the spider well. As you may know, there are more than 6,000 species of jumping spiders in the world. But he guesses that the spider is young because it is small and has molted.

Jerry Rovner (professor emeritus of biology at Ohio State University) also says that this spider is young. In an email to Ares, he stated that the spider’s eyes are large relative to the cephalothorax (jointed head and thorax), indicating the eyes of his childhood. But Rauner says that makes it harder to identify the type of spider. Most spiders are identified by their adult characteristics.

Rovner says the spider implanted itself inside the woman’s ear because it thought it was safe there. Many predatory spiders (spiders that do not live in webs) seek a safe place to molt because they cannot defend themselves against predators during this process.

He declared that jumping spiders, like 99.95% of the world’s spiders (that is, more than 50,000), are not dangerous. Kneifler agreed and stated that jumping spiders are not poisonous to humans. Doctors treating this woman announced that her eardrum was not damaged. They announced that they pulled out the spider and her skin and that the woman was cured quickly.

Source: arstechnica