368 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
AN INTERESTING CASE OF MILK CONTAMINATION 1 * 
C. S. Spooner 
The article by Prof. W. A. Riley, T8, on the presence of dipterous 
puparia in certified milk, recalls an instance of the occurrence of a 
dipteron in milk which came to my attention in Georgia while employed 
by the Georgia State Board of Entomology. 
In January of 1914, a sample of milk was sent to the office of the 
state entomologist containing dipterous larvae and puparia. The 
material was turned over to me for rearing. The second day after 
receipt, adults emerged. They proved to be a species belonging to the 
family Phoridae. 
The milk was still sweet when received and, as the adult flies emerged 
in so short a time, it is doubtful if the flies oviposited in the milk. A 
considerable quantity of dirt was present in the milk and it is probable 
that the larvae entered along with the dirt and that the occurrence was 
accidental. They were able to obtain the necessary subsistence from 
the milk however, and all the larva present formed puparia and eventu¬ 
ally emerged. Unfortunately the source of the milk was never in¬ 
vestigated. 
Material was sent to Air. J. R. Malloch of the Illinois State Natural 
i 
History Survey, to whom the writer is indebted for the determination. 
The species was Aphiochaeta scalaris Tw. Mr. Malloch further stated 
that Aphiochaeta ferruginea Brunetti is a synonym of the above species. 
Malloch, 7 13, states that the larvae have been recorded as attacking 
onions in the West Indies, living on decayed insects in Brazil and 
parasitizing Hyphantria cunea in Florida. Brunetti, 7 12, under the 
name Aphiochaeta ferruginea , states that the larvae are known to cause 
myiasis of the intestine in man and that it is able to complete its life 
cycle in the intestine. 
Brues, 7 15b, describes his experience in rearing the species from skin 
scraped from the back of a Negro who was suffering from a skin disease 
known as caraate. This author has no proof that it is the causal 
organism or even a normal secondary parasite. Mr. Brues cites 
Heuser, 7 10, who bred the species from larvae which had been removed 
from an Indian 7 s foot. 
Perhaps an added proof of the synonymity of Aphiochaeta scalaris 
and A. ferruginea is the fact that Brues, 7 15b, under his description of 
A. ferruginea , refers to a figure in the report proper (Brues, 7 15a) and 
that this figure is labelled A. scalaris! 
1 Contributions from the Entomological Laboratories of the University of Illinois, 
No. 61. 
