2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Forensic entomological study for accuracy enhancement in estimating postmortem interval during the warm/cold migratory season

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21790613
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Legal medicine
Research Institution	Iwate Medical University
Principal Investigator	SAIGUSA Kiyoshi Iwate Medical University, 共通教育センター, 講師 (30398490)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	昆虫 / 社会医学 / 生態学 / 法昆虫学
Research Abstract	For the purpose of accuracy enhancement in estimating postmortem interval during the warm/cold migratory season, piglet carcasses covered with clothes were placed outdoors within a residential area to observe the colonizing insect fauna and the decomposition process. The first colonizer, green bottle fly Lucilia sericata, oviposited within 20 hours after the piglet carcasses were placed. Four coleopteran species and 5 dipteran species were recovered from the piglet carcasses. The rove beetle, Creophilus maxillosus, was the sole predator for the dipteran larvae and the maggot mass made inroads into the soft tissue of piglet remains in approximately 7 days. The first colonizers of the warm/cold migratory season were two blowfly species, Calliphora lata and Triceratopyga calliphoroides. Although sarcosaprophagous insect fauna and the decomposition process of piglet carcasses were similar in late autumn and early spring, some differences were noticed according to whether or not dipteran pupae, puparia, and coleopteran activities were observed.

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