Cheese fly

This article is about the fly species. For the family, see Piophilidae.
Cheese fly
Piophila casei
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Piophilidae
Genus: Piophila
Species: P. casei
Binomial name
Piophila casei
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The cheese fly (Piophila casei) is a species of fly known for infesting human foodstuffs. The larvae of this fly are known as cheese skippers due to their ability to launch themselves several inches into the air when alarmed. When consumed accidentally, the larvae can survive in the intestine, causing enteric myiasis.

Cheese fly larvae are used to produce casu marzu, a traditional Sardininan cheese.

References

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.