Doctors discovered live bees feeding on tears inside a woman's eye

The small insects, known as sweat bees, were discovered living under her eyelids where they were feasting on her tears.

A 'world first'

The 29 year old Taiwanese woman expected to be treated for a simple infection, after she sought medical help for swelling around her eye.

Doctors at Fooyin University Hospital in Taiwan described the discovery of the sweat bees as a "world first", having successfully managed to extract all four from her tear duct alive.

Commenting on the incident at a press conference, the hospital's head of ophthalmology Dr Hung Chi-ting said, "I saw something that looked like insect legs, so I pulled them out under a microscope slowly, and one at a time without damaging their bodies."

The woman, He, who was referred to by her surname only, had been tending to a family member's grave and was pulling out weeds when she felt something go into her eye,