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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/a-wee-spider-needed-a-safe-place-to-molt-it-chose-a-womans-ear-canal/ [arstechnica.com]

While brain worms [arstechnica.com] have made many horrifying headlines [arstechnica.com] this year, the good folks at the New England Journal of Medicine offer some fresh nightmare fuel ahead of Halloween: an ear spider. And there's a video.

In a short clinical report published in this week's issue [nejm.org], doctors in Tainan City, Taiwan, detail the case of a 64-year-old woman who sought care at an otolaryngology (ENT) clinic. She came in complaining of having an incessant ruckus in her left ear for the previous four days. On the first day of symptoms, the woman said she was awoken by a feeling of a wee creature crawling in her ear canal. That feeling was then followed by days of clicking, beating, and rustling noises.
[...]
Video of the creepy crawler shows it darting around the canal, just in front of the eardrum. When it spots the medical probe nearing, the spider comes in for a closer look, facing the camera directly for a perfect view of its eyes.

The medical report doesn't identify the type of spider it is, and it's usually very difficult to identify spiders based on pictures. But Ars reached out to two spider experts who both said the spider is, without a doubt, in the family of jumping spiders (Salticidae). The giveaway is "the family-specific arrangement and size ratio of the eyes," Martin Nyffeler, an emeritus senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Basel, told Ars over email. Specifically, this family of spiders has large median front eyes, which can be seen in the ear spider when it looks directly into the camera.
[...]
The doctors treating the woman reported no damage to her eardrum. They sucked the spider and its exuvia out, and the woman's symptoms "immediately abated," they reported

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