2 BULLETIN 1453, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



but of no other stored food product. The fondness of the larvae for 

 ham was originally noted in the English edition of Systema Naturae 

 (43, p. 610) in 1806, and the first detailed account of injury to cured 

 meats was given in France by Dufour (19) in 1844. In 1918 (67) 

 it received considerable official attention in Europe, this time as a 

 pest of brine-cured fish in Astrachan, on the Caspian Sea, where 

 very serious damage was done for several years through various 

 causes incident to the war. 



The record of the cheese skipper in the United States curiously 

 parallels its European history, but the first mention of injury to 

 hams appeared many years later. In 1841 Harris (30, p. 417) , who 

 seems to have been the first outside of Europe to write of the insect, 

 made no mention of infestation of cured meats. In 1870 Riley 

 (59) gave cheese as the sole material in which oviposit ion took 

 place; but in 1874 (61, p. 100) he reported that hams had been in- 

 jured at St. Louis, in 1871, by " certain blowflies " which, he stated 

 later (62), included flies which were identical with the adults of 

 the cheese skipper. In 1880 (62) Riley reported further injury to 

 meat products, one firm at Peoria, 111., having lost over $2,000 worth 

 of smoked hams from this pest. Serious injury at Kansas City in 

 1891 was reported by Kellogg (37, pp. 11 4-1 IS) ; in a week as much 

 as $1,500 worth of spoiled hams and bacon were" returned by con- 

 signees. 



In 1870 Willard (80) reported that " Immense losses are sus- 

 tained every year on account of skippery cheese. Sometimes 

 thousands of pounds * * * are tainted in this way * * *." 

 According to Murtfeldt (53, p. 171), however, the situation had 

 changed by the year 1893, when she asserted that the insect had 

 within recent years become a far more serious pest of meats than 

 of cheese, causing thousands of dollars' annual property loss and in 

 addition " other thousands in labor and mechanical contrivances to 

 keep it in check." 



At the present time there are no indications that the American 

 cheese industry suffers severe losses from the skipper, although this 

 insect is still the principal cheese pest. Extensive losses occur, 

 however, both to the meat trade and to farmers who cure small 

 quantities of meat for home use. According to Howard (35, p, 5), 

 Federal meat inspectors annually condemn over $1,000,000 worth 

 of meat of all kinds on account of injury by insects, of which the 

 skipper " is probably the most serious." 



Piophila casei is without question the principal insect species 

 attacking cured meats in the United States, and the value of meat 

 actually destroyed in commerce, on farms, and at small abattoirs 

 where there is no official inspection, plus the prorated cost of such 

 preventive measures as screening and wrapping, added to injury to 

 commercial reputations and loss of good will, undoubtedly make a 

 total of large proportions. 



SYSTEMATIC POSITION AND SYNONYMY 



Piophila casei (Linne) , type species of the genus Piophila of Fallen 

 and dominant economic member of the acalyptrate muscoid family 

 Piophilidae, was described in 1758 (41, p. 597) as Musca putris casei. 



