Doctors were left baffled when they found a live ladybird moving about in a man’s intestines.

The 59-year-old man visited a hospital in the US for a colonoscopy in which a small camera is inserted in the rectum for a closer inspection of the bowels, reports IFL Science.

The routine practice is carried out to check what’s causing bowel symptoms such as bleeding from the bottom or constipation.

But what doctors found was a live ladybird in the man’s body.

The incredible find was included as a case study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology entitled “An Unusual Finding of a Ladybug on Screening Colonoscopy” by Francis E. Dailey.

In the case report it reads: “A ladybug was found in the transverse colon during screening colonoscopy of a 59-year-old man with no comorbidities.”

According to the journal the “colonoscopy preparation may have helped the bug to escape from digestive enzymes in the stomach and upper small intestine”.

The author notes that in preparation for the inspection the patient was given “one gallon of polyethylene glycol” the night before which helps to clear the intestines before the colonoscopy.