Branches of biology

The spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) in its caterpillar stage of life.Photo: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)A man’s suspected case of painful eczema on his left wrist turned out to be something much more unusual. Doctors in China discovered that their patient actually had caterpillar hairs lodged in his arm, likely caught while climbing an apple tree months earlier. Following a steroid injection, the man’s lesions cleared up.The tale of the embedded caterpillar hairs was detailed last month in BMJ Case Reports. The man, said to…

Photo: Hagen Hopkins (Getty Images)Evidence from the tragic death of a 5-year-old boy in 2008 may finally settle the debate over a mysterious polio-like condition that’s been paralyzing children for years. Researchers this week say they’ve found clear traces of enterovirus D68 in the nerve cells of the child, who likely died from acute flaccid myelitis. Many scientists have long suspected EV-D68 to be the root cause behind recent outbreaks of the rare illness.Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is characterized by inflammation…