Improvements to iFly®—proof of concept internal visual key system for species identification

Species identification is the critical first step in any use of entomological evidence in medico-legal death investigations. iFly^® is a mobile application designed to accumulate all the necessary information from a death scene in order to increase accuracy in record keeping. One area of potential expansion is the inclusion of visual taxonomic keys so that specimens are identified where possible inside the software. One of the major dipteran groups encountered in medico-legal entomology are the Calliphoridae (blow flies). A proof-of-concept visual identification key for the Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky region has been developed previously by Cutter & Dahlem, “Identification key to the common forensically important adult flies (diptera) of Northern Kentucky,” and is freely available on the internet (http://www.nku.edu/~dahlem/ForensicFlyKey/Homepage.htm). We utilized the visual resources from this website to create a proof-of-concept visual key system within iFly^®. We demonstrate that the integration of a visual key system produces an intuitive tool on the iPad^® platform. Nodal decisions are recorded for every specimen as decisions are made, so the investigator has a complete record of the decisions they made, and can access them for review if needed with minimal effort.