Genetic Basis of Thermal Tolerance influence both dynamic plastic responses to thermal stress and preparatory processes that improve thermal resistance. These results also have utility for directly comparing GWAS and transcriptomic approaches for identifying candidate genes associated with thermal tolerance.

Many authors produced carrion insect development data for predicting the age of an insect from a corpse. Under some circumstances, this age value is a minimum postmortem interval. There are no standard protocols for such experiments, and the literature includes a variety of sampling methods. To our knowledge, there has been no investigation of how the choice of sampling method can be expected to influence the performance of the resulting predictive model. We calculated 95 % inverse prediction confidence limits for growth curves of the forensically important carrion flies Chrysomya megacephala and Sarconesia chlorogaster (Calliphoridae) at a constant temperature. Confidence limits constructed on data for entire age cohorts were considered to be the most realistic and were used to judge the effect of various subsampling schemes from the literature. Random subsamples yielded predictive models very similar to those of the complete data. Because taking genuinely random subsamples would require a great deal of effort, we imagine that it would be worthwhile only if the larval measurement technique were especially slow and/or expensive. However, although some authors claimed to use random samples, their published methods suggest otherwise. Subsampling the largest larvae produced a predictive model that performed poorly, with confidence intervals about an estimate of age being unjustifiably narrow and unlikely to contain the true age. We believe these results indicate that most forensic insect development studies should involve the measurement of entire age cohorts rather than subsamples of one or more cohorts.

Determining the age of an insect collected in a corpse is a key element to estimate the minimum postmortem interval in forensic entomology. Along with models of accumulated degree-hours, the estimation of the age based on larval weight and length is among the most common methods for this purpose. Sarconesia chlorogaster (Wiedemann, 1830), along with other Calliphoridae, is an important species in forensics in South America. However, studies analyzing the weight and length of S. chlorogaster larvae during development have not yet been done. In this work, we develop growth models based on the weight and length of larvae in different temperatures and provide formulas that can be used to estimate the age of the larvae based on the weight and length for each temperature. Larvae were reared at six temperatures (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35°C), and the measurements of larval length and weight were taken during all development until they stopped feeding. For the measurements, we attempted to use methodologies that can be easily replicated and do not require equipment that could be of difficult access. The results of this work come to complement and improve the use of S. chlorogaster in forensic applications.

Southern Brazil is unique due to its subtropical climate. Here, we report on the first forensic entomology case and the first record of Sarconesia chlorogaster (Wiedemann) in a human corpse in this region. Flies' samples were collected from a body indoors at 20°C. Four species were found, but only Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) and S. chlorogaster were used to estimate the minimum postmortem interval (mPMI). The mPMI was calculated using accumulated degree hour (ADH) and developmental time. The S. chlorogaster puparium collected was light in color, so we used an experiment to establish a more accurate estimate for time since initiation of pupation where we found full tanning after 3 h. Development of C. albiceps at 20°C to the end of the third instar is 7.4 days. The mPMI based on S. chlorogaster (developmental time until the third instar with no more than 3 h of pupae development) was 7.6 days.

Understanding development rate across these temperatures now makes development of S. chlorogaster a forensically useful tool for estimating postmortem interval.