SOME INSECT8 AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, ETC. 103 



This insect. like so many other household species, is cosmopolitan, 

 and was doubtless originally imported from Europe into the United 

 States. 



Careful observations on the life history of this species have tx 

 made by several writers. Jn 1892 Miss M. E. Murtfeldt. whose atten- 

 tion was called to the species on account of the great damage which it 

 was represented to be doing in certain Western packing and curing 

 establishments, studied the life history of the summer generation. 1 

 The eggs were shown by Miss Murtfeldt to be deposited iu more or less 

 compact clusters of from 5 to 15, and also scattered singly. In her 

 observation jars the average number was 30 to a single female, but it is 

 possible that under these abnormal conditions the number was smaller 



/"■ 



i m 



FlG. 4-. — PiophUa easei: a. larva; b. pnparinm; <\ pupa: J. male fly; e, female with wini:> folded — all 



enlarged (original). 



than usual. The egg is white, slender, oblong, slightly curved. 1 mm. 

 in length, with a diameter of about one-fourth its length. Hatching 

 takes place within thirty-six hours. The larva is cylindrical, tapering 

 gradually toward anterior end. and truncate posteriorly, furnished at 

 hinder extremity with two horny projecting stigmata and a pair of 

 Meshy filaments. The larva completes its growth in from seven to eight 

 days, attaining a length of from 7 to 9 mm. While feeding, if the food 

 supply is Sufficient it does not move about much, entire clusters of 

 larva- often completing their growth in the same crevice in which the 

 mother flies deposited their eggs. When mature, however, it moves 

 away to some dry spot, contracts in length, assumes a yellowish color. 

 and gradually forms into a golden-brown puparium -I or 5 nun. in length. 



Insect Lit'.', Vol. VI, pp. 170-1' 



