INSECTS INJURIOUS TO MEATS 



277 



THE RED-LEGGED HAM BEETLE 



Necrobia rufipes 



This is a small steel-blue beetle (Fig. 89) scarcely more 

 than one-fifth of an inch in length. Different individuals 

 vary considerably in size and many of them are less than 

 one-fifth of an inch in length. The legs of this beetle are 

 reddish colored, hence its name red- 

 legged ham beetle. Most of the 

 beetles belonging to the family of 

 this ham beetle live upon flowers or 

 on living animal matter, but the 

 ham beetle seems to prefer dead 

 animal matter as food. The beetles 

 are found about dead animal matter 

 in fields or other situations. 



The larvae of this beetle have 

 been guilty and are still guilty of 

 causing serious damage to stored 

 hams, although they are not confined 

 to this class of meat. 



Life history. The beetle normally feeds and spends 

 its life history on dead animals in the field. However, 

 in May or June the adults which emerge at this time 

 probably often find their way into storerooms and 

 pantries. Here the mother beetle deposits her tiny 

 eggs upon ham if she can find this meat accessible. These 

 small whitish eggs, twenty-five of which would not reach 

 more than an inch, soon hatch into tiny white grubs, each 

 with a brown head and two small hooks or tubercles at 

 the tip of the body. The grubs burrow into the outside 



FIG. 89. Red-legged 

 ham beetle. (X 8.) 



