Medicolegal forensic entomology deals with the utility of insects and other arthropods in solving criminal or unexplained death, with the main goal of determining the postmortem interval (PMI). Insects are used in two complementary ways to estimate the PMI. First, the PMI can be estimated by comparing known developmental information on certain early-arrival species, such as flies in the families Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae, to the development of individuals under weather patterns for the period of time surrounding the discovery of the corpse. Second, because insects invade a corpse shortly after death in a manner that is predictable and specific to the environment in which it is found, succession data can often indicate how long the victim has been dead. The composition of taxa found on a corpse at the time of discovery (corpse fauna) can be compared with the composition of insects at a given period of time derived from controlled studies (baseline fauna) to estimate PMI. Because succession patterns of arthropods are location specific, it is important to develop successional data for specific areas so that the PMI of a corpse in the same or similar areas can be estimated accurately. Here we describe studies using pig (Sus scrofa) models to determine the successional patterns of arthropod species of forensic importance for Blacksburg, VA. The studies were conducted in early spring and mid-summer so that comparisons could be made between the patterns of succession in each period. The data are presented graphically and Occurrence Matrices are developed, which are subjected to Jaccard Similarity Coefficient analysis to derive metrics of the temporal changes in taxonomic composition of carrion arthropods for the Blacksburg area.
Species 1: Diptera Calliphoridae Phormia regina (black blow fly)
Keywords: Forensic, Succession
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