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Abstract

Many species of Piophilidae (Diptera) are relevant to forensic entomology because their presence on a corpse can be helpful in estimating the postmortem interval (PMI) and document insect succession. The aims of this paper are to document the fauna of forensically relevant Piophilidae species worldwide and to present an updated checklist and identifi cation key to the Nearctic species, as existing keys are either outdated, too broad in geographical scope to be user-friendly, and/or contain ambiguous characters. Thirteen species are included in the checklist and key. Information on their biology, taxonomy, character variability, and distribution is provided, supplementing the extensive work of McAlpine (1977).

Investigations on Arthropods Associated with Decay Stages of Buried Animals in Italy

“…The adult arthropods collected during the observation time and by the Berlese funnel on soil samples were stored in 60% ethanol and taxonomically identified at the maximum possible level using keys [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. Concerning the dipteran larvae collected by tweezers, they were reared to adults in plastic boxes containing a layer of sand covered with about 100 g bovine liver, at a temperature similar to that of field collection.…”

Diversity of vertebrate and invertebrate scavenging communities of reptile carcasses in the piedmont of North Carolina, USA

“…adults and larvae and also insects from the Dipteran family Calliphoridae, both frequent colonizers of carrion (Michaud & Moreau, 2017). We observed many members of the insect family Piophilidae, which are forensically important necrophagous species used to estimate the postmortem interval in forensics (Rochefort et al, 2015). Moreover, many of the Calliphoridae (blow flies) we detected, including Lucilia sericata, utilize carrion as breeding sites (Smith & Wall, 1997), and are typically found in high relative abundances on pig carcasses used in forensic entomology (Gruner et al, 2007).…”