ABSTRACT
This is the first study to report Chrysomya pinguis (Walker) and Lucilia porphyrina (Walker) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) as forensically important blow fly species from human cadavers in Thailand, in addition to Chrysomya villeneuvi (Patton) already known in Thailand. In 2016, a fully decomposed body of an unknown adult male was discovered in a high mountainous forest during winter in Chiang Mai province. The remains were infested heavily with thousands of blow fly larvae feeding simultaneously on them. Morphological identification of adults reared from the larvae, and molecular analysis based on sequencing of 1,247 bp partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (CO1) of the larvae and puparia, confirmed the above mentioned 3 species. The approving forensic fly evidence by molecular approach was described for the first time in Thailand. Moreover, neighbor-joining phylogenetic analysis of the CO1 was performed to compare the relatedness of the species, thereby affirming the accuracy of identification. As species of entomofauna varies among cases in different geographic and climatic circumstances, C. pinguis and L. porphyrina were added to the list of Thai forensic entomology caseworks, including colonizers of human remains in open, high mountainous areas during winter. Further research should focus on these 3 species, for which no developmental data are currently available.
Subject(s)
Adult , Humans , Male , Asian People , Cadaver , Colon , Diptera , Electron Transport Complex IV , Entomology , Forests , Larva , ThailandABSTRACT
In criminal investigations, the accurate identification of specimens must be a vary important procedure in the estimation of post-mortem interval(PMI) using insect specimens. However, the morphological-based identification method has many limitations, as species identification for immature stages of many species being difficult or impossible, and more convenient methods are needed to identify necrophagopus fly species. So, many authors have proposed DNA-based methods for identifying fly specimen because of identifying all life stages of carrion flies. In this study, we sequenced a part of mitochondrial cytochrome oxodase subunit I (COI) for each five blow fly species [Hemipyrellia ligurriens, Lucilia illustris, Phaenicia sericata, Chrysomya. megacephala, Chrysomya pinguis] collected from the rural and urban regions in Korea, and compared 400 nucleotides of one species with those of another species. Percent similarity of sequence compared was highest value between Ch. pinguis and Ch. megacephala (97.8%), and lowest one between H. ligurriens and Ch. pinguis(89.2%). Maximun intraspecific variation was observed in L. illustris (0.5%). In conclusion, the experimental results indicate that sequence analyses of more necrophagous flies collected from various regions of Korea should be performed to construct a database of mitochondrial CO I of necrophagous fly species.