130 [Assembly, 



The body of these mites is black, and the legs red, from which 

 we have the specific name of hicolor. I shall endeavor to learn 

 more of the history of the species, as its attack, as above men- 

 tioned, is the first record of the kind that we have, and therefore 

 quite interesting. 



A Mite infesting Smoked Meats. 

 Tyroglyphus siro (Linn.). 



The well-known cheese-mite has been honored with quite a 

 number of names, popular and scientific, as the result of the 

 different conditions to which it has displayed a readiness to adapt 

 itself. A correspondent from Everett, Pa., has sent a piece of 

 meat infested with living forms which were abounding on some 

 hams and shoulders. He had washed them off a few weeks pre- 

 viously with hot soap-suds, but they had become as numerous as 

 ever. The inquiry is made — what do they come from, and would 

 the use of the meat be hurtful ? 



The meat was found infested witii, and to show the operations 

 of, the common cheese-mite, Tyroglyphus siro (Linn.). This species 

 is far from being confined to cheese (where it occurs more frequently 

 and more abundantly than elsewhere), for it is also found in flour, 

 from which it has been described as T. farinm and also in sugar, 

 when the additional name was given it of T. sacchari. 



Of late it has been quite frequently heard from as infesting 

 smoked hams. Last year pieces of ham were sent to me by a pro- 

 vision broker in New York city, with the statement ti)at the hams 

 in store so swarmed with the mites as to resist all efforts made to 

 arrest the attack, and rendered them unsuitable for sale. Some 

 Western pork-packing houses had previously been found to be 

 infested with it and with an associated species of somewhat larger 

 size, Tyroglyphus longior (Gervais). It had also been recorded by 

 a European entomologist, De Geer, as infesting smoked meats in 

 Europe. (See the Thirty-ninth Annual Report New York State 

 Museum Natural History, 1886, pp. 114-116.) 



The question is asked, from what does the mite come ? When it is 

 discovered in hams purchased in market, the infestation may have 

 originated in the packing-house from which they came, as some of 

 the Western establishments have been know!j to abound with them 

 in immense numbers. In the instance of the New York attack. 



