ABSTRACT
Necrophagous species of insects provide useful complementary data to estimate the postmortem interval in forensic cases. Here, for the first time, we report on insect specimens collected from human corpses in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During the study, 14 beetle larvae were collected from the outdoor corpse (case report one) and five flies and seven beetles were collected from the indoor corpse (case report two). Sequencing was performed to study the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as the prospective basis of an identification technique. The sequencing focused on a section of the cytochrome oxidase I encoding region of mtDNA. Two beetle species, Dermestes frischii (Kugelann) and Dermestes maculatus (De Geer) (Coleoptera: Dermestidae), and one fly species, Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), were identified. These results will be instrumental in the implementation of a Saudi database of forensically relevant insects.
Subject(s)
Coleoptera/physiology , Diptera/physiology , Animals , Base Sequence , Cadaver , Coleoptera/classification , Coleoptera/genetics , Coleoptera/growth & development , Diptera/classification , Diptera/genetics , Diptera/growth & development , Electron Transport Complex IV/genetics , Entomology , Forensic Sciences , Humans , Insect Proteins/genetics , Larva/classification , Larva/genetics , Larva/growth & development , Larva/physiology , Mitochondrial Proteins/genetics , Saudi Arabia , Sequence AlignmentABSTRACT
Many of the blow flies (Calliphoridae) are of economic importance because of their effects on public health and the economy by causing myiasis in human beings and animals. Blow flies are also, however, forensic bioindicators since they can be used to determine the Post-Mortem Interval (PMI). Chrysomya saffranea (Bigot 1877), a dipteran calliphoridae of forensic and economic importance is currently endemic and recorded only in Australia and New Guinea. Here, the occurrence of C. saffranea is reported for the first time from Aurangabad City, Maharashtra State in India. Fully grown third instar larvae of C. saffranea were collected from decaying cats. The larvae were reared under laboratory conditions and adult flies freshly emerged from pupae were collected and identified by their morphological features.
