UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1453 



Washington, D. C. 



January, 1927 



THE CHEESE SKIPPER AS A PEST IN CURED MEATS 1 



By Perez Simmons, Associate Entomologist, Stored-Product Insect Investiga- 

 tions, Bureau of Entomology 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction . 1 



Systematic position and synonymy-- 2 



Common names 3 



Distribution 4 



Materials infested 4 



The cheese skipper and disease 7 



Nature of injury to cured meats 8 



The adult insect 9 



The egg 22 



Page 



The larva 22 



Metamorphosis 28 



Emergence of adult 30 



Life cycle 30 



Insects found associated with the 



cheese skipper 34 



Control measures 35 



Summary and conclusions 49 



Literature cited 51 



INTRODUCTION 



These cheese skipper, Piophila casei (L.), has been mentioned in 

 literature as a domestic pest since the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury and is one of the longest-known economic insects. A reference 

 to this species can be recognized in the writings of Olaus Magnus 

 (b6, p. 812), 2 in 1567 — a " kind of grub which infests cheese, leaping 

 in the shape of a bow in fat cheese, and which no cold destroys " 

 ("Vermis deniq; alius caseorum, salins instar arcus in pinguibus 

 caseis, qui nullo frigore interimitur "). It is thus very certain that 

 it was established in Europe before commerce with the Western 

 Hemisphere had become extensive, and it seems improbable that the 

 insect was introduced into Europe from the New World. Other 

 pre-Linnean writers who were familiar with the cheese skipper in- 

 clude Kedi (58), Goedaert (27), Frisch (25), and Merian (50). 

 Eedi's account is of especial interest because he used experiments 

 with this fly to strengthen the evidence opposing the theory of spon- 

 taneous generation. 



For a half century after Linne (bl p. 597) described it, in 1758, 

 the cheese skipper was referred to in literature as a pest of cheese 



1 This bulletin represents a portion of the results of an investigation of the insect 

 enemies of cured meats. The writer gratefully acknowledges the assistance of George W. 

 Ellington, junior entomologist, who aided materially in obtaining much of the information 

 in this report. 



2 Reference is made by number in italics to " Literature cited," p. 51. 



6102 ! 



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