INSECTS INJURIOUS TO MEATS 289 



leasing them like a spring they are thrown considerable 

 distances, four or five inches. 



The cheese skipper was probably imported from Europe. 

 It is now widely distributed over the United States. 

 In fact, it is a cosmopolitan pest. C. V. Riley in 1880 

 showed that the same fly laid its eggs on cured meats, 

 where they hatched and the " skippers " infested the meats. 

 Thus it has also become known as the "meat skipper.'' 

 In fact, it probably causes much more loss to the large 

 meat packing establishments than it does to cheese making 

 factories. Miss Murtfeldt quotes from a letter from a 

 packing-house company regarding this insect as follows : 

 " We wish to know what it is and especially at what period 

 in its life it can best be fought. It entails an enormous 

 loss upon all of our packing-house companies." The fly 

 infests hams and shoulders, and other smoked parts of 

 the carcass. Apparently, it is not much attracted to 

 fresh meats or to those simply salted. Moreover, it 

 seems attracted to pork more than to beef. Even when 

 a ham of beef and of pork hang side by side, it prefers the 

 pork. In cheese manufactories there is evidently less 

 damage than formerly. The cheese storerooms are often 

 darkened and the cheeses turned and rubbed every morning 

 with grease. The skippers are notorious for their habit 

 of infesting the better and richer cheeses. One can be 

 sure that a "skippery" cheese is a good one but not 

 good because of the presence of the skippers. It is not 

 to be supposed that the skippers actually improve the 

 cheese, although there is an old English custom of placing 

 cheese under the drip of a beer keg to attract the insect 

 and encourage its development. 



Miss M. E. Murtfeldt made a series of observations 



