The most significant contribution of the field forensic entomology is the development of a procedure to estimate the duration of the postmortem interval (PMI). Estimating the PMI involves the establishment of both a minimum and maximum time frame between time of death, and corpse discovery. The accurate quantification of this time is essential to any homicide investigation as it both narrows the field of suspects, and may assist in the determination of an unknown deceased individual. When conducting a forensic entomological investigation to estimate the PMI, certain assumptions are made based on published protocols in refereed journals, textbooks, and field manuals. However, few studies have focused on the role of chemical substances in the decomposing tissues of the deceased, and their possible influence upon the developmental parameters used to establish the PMI. Furthermore, no studies have addressed the role of background levels of pollutants in the most commonly used larval diets used for rearing immature arthropods collected from a forensic investigation. The widely reported sub-toxic stimulation (hormesis) of developmental parameters reported elsewhere in the scientific literature has been completely ignored with respect to the determination of PMI, and forensic entomology in general. Despite the fact that Hormesis has been extensively documented in various arthropod models, with a number of forensically important chemical agents.
Species 1: Diptera Calliphoridae Phormia regina (black blow fly)
Keywords: Hormesis, forensic
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA