Fig 3 - uploaded by Krzysztof Szpila
Content may be subject to copyright.
4 Third instars of Calliphora and Cynomya: a – Calliphora vomitoria, cephaloskeleton, lateral view; b – C. vomitoria, anterior spiracle; c – C. vomitoria, thoracic segment III, spines; d – C. vomitoria, thoracic segment III, spine; e – C. vomitoria, posterior spiracle, f – Calliphora vicina, cephaloskeleton, lateral view; g – C. vicina, anterior spiracle; h – C. vicina, thoracic segment III, spines; i – C. vicina, posterior spiracles; j – Cynomya mortuorum, cephaloskeleton, lateral view; k – C. mortuorum, anterior spiracle; l – C. mortuorum, thoracic segment III, spines; m – C. mortuorum, posterior spiracles. Abbreviations: a – distance between posterior spiracles, b – diameter of posterior spiracle, db – dorsal bridge, dc – dorsal cornu, ds – dental sclerite, is – intermediate sclerite, lb – lobe of anterior spiracle, mh – mouthhook, os – oral sclerite, pb – parastomal bar, pe – peritreme, sl – slit of posterior spiracle, vc – ventral cornu, vp – vertical plate
Source publication
In Europe larvae of blowflies are the main group of insects responsible for decomposition of exposed vertebrate remains, including
the human body. This determines their high forensic importance and frequent application for estimation of PMI. The importance
of proper identification of insects collected in forensic cases and experiments to the specie...
Similar publications
Se presenta un caso de miiasis traumática o de herida por larvas de Cochliomyia hominivorax (Diptera: Calliphoridae) en un gallo (Gallus gallus domesticus) de 3 años y 8 meses de edad, mantenido en jaula en la ciudad de Coro, estado Falcón, Venezuela. La infestación ocurrió en una herida traumática de la región plantar (metatarso-falangiana) de la...
Fully grown third stage larvae (LIII) of Chrysomya albiceps were recovered from aberrant sites viz. trachea and rumen during necropsy of a free-range sambar deer that had been observed to bear an inflamed tongue infested with maggots and subsequently died due to starvation. Five dead maggots of C. bezziana were also recovered from rumen. The aberra...
Performing quantitative sampling and determining faunistic analyses of dipterans is of fundamental importance in the analysis of ecological behavior, such as population dynamics and diversity, among other factors, for exotic and native species of necrophagous dipterans, so it is important to observe the type of bait used in traps to capture these d...
Citations
... Martín-Vega et al. (2014) were used to identify Piophilidae larvae, and Rochefort et al. (2015) to identify adult Piophilidae. Other Diptera were identified at least at the family level using Szpila (2010) and Marshall et al. (2016). Díaz-Aranda et al. (2018) were used to identify Coleoptera larvae. ...
Succession patterns of carrion insects on large mammal’s carrion has been widely studied, notably to estimate the post-mortem interval in forensic investigations as accurately as possible. However, little attention has been paid to the carrion insects living inside these bones once a carcass is skeletonized. One very recent study documented flies emerging from pig carcasses, and only scarce authors reported the presence of other carrion insects taking advantage of the bone marrow. We, thus, aimed to (1) estimate the frequency of inner-bone space colonization by carrion insects, with particular attention to bone-skipper flies; (2) identify the insects living inside the carrion bones; and (3) determine whether or not carrion insects found within the bones can successfully exit the bones and complete their development. We extensively sampled 185 large mammals’ bones collected from twelve vulture feeding stations and four isolated carcasses in southwest France and northern Spain. Sampled bones were opened, and the insects found inside were identified. For two bones, foramen, i.e., the holes providing a natural entrance and exit to the bone’s inner cavity, was monitored with a camera to assess the insect’s putative exit. We describe the entomofauna, i.e., the set of insect species, living within the bones, and illustrate insects’ ability to exit the bones for their subsequent development and maturity. These results are discussed in the framework of carrion insect conservation and forensic entomology perspectives.
... The maggots were transferred to the medical Entomology Laboratory of Tehran University of Medical Sciences for diagnosis and identification. According to the morphological characteristics of the last segment of the larvae body and respiratory organs, the collected specimens from the patient were identified as L. sericata ( Figure 1) [9]. The last segment of the body of the L. sericata larva has six conical-shaped tubercles around the peritreme and posterior spiracle. ...
... The last segment of the body of the L. sericata larva has six conical-shaped tubercles around the peritreme and posterior spiracle. The posterior respiratory tract is the most important character for identification of the larvae [9]. The slits which are the entrance holes of the trachea are located obliquely in each spiracle to the center of the larva (Figure 2). ...
... The slits which are the entrance holes of the trachea are located obliquely in each spiracle to the center of the larva (Figure 2). Meanwhile, in the Sarcophagidae larvae, the slits are obliquely outwards or downwards, and in the Muscidae larvae, the slits are sinusoidal or S-shaped [9]. Also, a number of the collected larvae were raised in the Insectarium of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences to become adults, and adult flies were identified as L. sericata using morphological features [10]. ...
... The morphological characteristics of the examined larval structures and adult flies were recorded under biological and stereomicroscopes using an iPhone 12 Pro (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA, USA) through a microscope adapter, LabCam ® (iDu Optics ® , New York, NY, USA), and fly species were identified following keys for larvae [3,33,[36][37][38][39][40] and adults [2,3,41-43]. ...
The "beautiful viviparous fly", Wohlfahrtia magnifica, may have a magnificent appearance due to its striking morphology; however, it is a potentially deadly agent of obligate traumatic myiasis in humans and animals, with a serious impact on welfare and economics. The fly is found across the Palearctic realm, including the Western Balkan region, with reports from former Yugoslavian countries from the first half of the 20th century. In this paper, a recent case of wohlfahrtiosis recorded in Northern Serbia is evidenced using morphological and molecular techniques. Larvae were collected from two adult sheep with severe hoof myiasis and two young sheep with genital and interdigital myiasis. Morphological identification was performed for adults bred from the infested vulva and third-stage larvae (L 3) collected from the hoof wounds, supported with barcoding sequences of the COI gene obtained from larval pairs from the hoof wounds of older and the genitalia of younger sheep. W. magnifica was identified according to the appearance of male fly terminalia and the morphology of L 3 , which was confirmed after the comparison of representative sequences of the COI gene (deposited in GenBank™ under accession numbers MT027108-MT027114) to those available in GenBank™. This finding represents the first reported case of wohlfahrtiosis in the Western Balkans in 80 years, highlighting the need to re-inform relevant stakeholders to achieve adequate disease control.
... Additionally, a wide range of invertebrates, including representatives from the orders Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera (parasitoid wasps), can be found on carcasses (Lutz et al., 2021). Although morphological identification keys exist for the developmental stages of forensically important individuals, such as those written by Szpila (2009) or Grzywacz et al. (2017), it is still challenging to identify juveniles found on a carcass, especially outside the geographic area of Central Europe. Genetic markers offer an additional advantage as there is no requirement to study the entire body of a necrophagous individual for molecular identification. ...
The identification of necrophagous individuals on a dead body is most often associated with forensic practice and the field of forensic entomology. Insects are found on a dead body depending on climatic conditions, with the seasons naturally accelerating the decomposition of tissues, and successive waves gradually reducing the amount of soft tissue remaining. The aim of this work was to compare the composition of the necrophagous invertebrate species occurring on the different carcasses (Gallus gallus vs. Sus scrofa f. domestica). A second objective was to evaluate which of the identification tools comparing COI gene sequences is currently more appropriate for barcoding and whether there are significant differences in the results of the BOLD and BLAST identification tools between the samples examined. Molecular determination was done using Sanger sequencing of the COI fragment of mitochondrial DNA. In total, 96 individuals and 13 species were identified in the Gallus gallus carcass and 50 individuals and 17 species on the Sus scrofa (f. domestica) carcass. Calliphora vomitoria was determined as most abundant species in both carcasses. The reliability of the BOLD and BLAST identification methods is comparably high
... Their species identification, crucial for further forensic inferences, is often characterised as challenging [5,6]. Fortunately, there is sufficient knowledge of the morphology of third instars of Calliphoridae for the preparation of a comprehensive identification key, for most African countries [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. ...
... Adult forms of these species are attracted to vertebrate remains [21,27], although there are no reliable breeding records from human corpses. The third instar larvae for the basic set of African blowflies of forensic importance are already described and relevant information is scattered in many papers [5,7,9,10,14,28,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. However, only some of them are based on material collected directly in African countries [9,28,36,[46][47][48]. ...
... For preparation of slides, larvae were macerated for 24 h in a cold solution of 5 % KOH. Next the particular parts of the body were mounted in Hoyer's medium or dehydrated through 80 %, 90 % and 99.5 % ethanol and mounted in Euparal [14]. Concave slides were used for cephaloskeletons and flat slides for other morphological details. ...
... In some cases, larvae and pupae were reared in the laboratory under constant temperatures until the emergence of the adult flies and the times for reaching specific developmental landmarks (post-feeding, pupariation, adult emergence) were noted. Species identification was performed based on morphological characters with the current systematic literature [26,27]. In 10.8% of the cases (n = 5), an entomological report was requested by the prosecution. ...
Understanding the causes, extent, and period of neglect is not only a medical but also a forensic task when it comes to legal investigations. In this study, we evaluated 46 autopsied cases where there was clear evidence of physical neglect during the last period of the deceased’s life. The age of the deceased ranged from 21 to 96 years; most of them were female (71.7%). The majority of cases (89.9%) took place in a domestic environment, with partners or relatives providing care. The most frequent post-mortem findings were pressure sores, followed by inflammatory skin changes, and signs of malnutrition and dehydration. Neglect was the cause or co-cause of death in 23% of the cases. More than half of the deceased showed severe contamination of the skin surface by excrement, and in almost 40% of the cases, fly infestation was found. The majority of insects belonged to the group of house flies (Diptera: Muscidae), mainly the common house fly, Musca domestica. By analyzing the entomological evidence, it was possible to prove an insect infestation period of at least several days ante-mortem. Since the period of neglect may be relevant in terms of legal proceedings, the present work demonstrates the particular importance of insect traces in providing this evidence. While prosecution and conviction of caregivers remain challenging, it is all the more essential that entomology and legal medicine collaborate on the analysis of findings of neglect.
... All insect samples were identified using a Zeiss stereomicroscope and current literature targeting forensic relevant flies [35][36][37][38][39] and beetles [40]. For larvae, only specimens that were in the third larval stage were included in the morphological identification. ...
The pattern of insect succession and the species composition on cadavers can be influenced by several parameters, one of which is concealment. It has been previously shown for cadavers inside containers (e.g. suitcases or vehicles) or various indoor situations, that concealment can lead to a delayed arrival, altered species composition and decreased number of taxa present at the cadaver. As no data is yet available for the specific environment of tents on these processes, we placed five pig cadavers inside closed two-person tents during the summer of 2021 in a mixed forest in Germany. Five control cadavers were freely accessible for insects. To minimize disturbances, tents were only opened every fifth day over a period of 25 days for estimating the temperature profiles, insect diversity and quantification of the cadavers' decomposition using the total body score (TBS). The temperature inside the tents was only slightly elevated compared to the ambient temperature during the study. Although the tents prevented direct access of adult flies and beetles, the cadavers were colonized because the flies oviposited on the zippers and fly screens of the inner tents. However, the resulting infestation of the cadavers by fly larvae was reduced and delayed, compared to the exposed cadavers. The dominant fly species on both the tent and exposed cadavers was the blow fly Lucilia caesar. Open cadavers showed the expected decomposition patterns with large larval masses. 25 days after placement, only bones and hair remained from the exposed pigs (TBS = 32), while most of the tissue of the cadavers inside the tents was still present (TBS = 22.5) and post feeding larvae were not able to leave the tents. Regarding the attraction of beetles to both treatments, open cadavers were predominately colonized by the silphid Oiceoptoma thoracicum, while the silphid Necrodes littoralis was the most dominant species in the pitfall traps surrounding the tents. Considering the prolonged pre-appearance interval of fly larvae colonizing the cadavers inside tents, the entomological evidence of forensic cases dealing with concealed bodies should be handled with caution, since the post mortem interval might be significantly underestimated.
... Metatarsus ( described as follows: "The body tapers gradually forwards, narrowing slightly backwards and then is somewhat truncated". Those larvae were more elongated than the larvae of Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus, 1758) shown by Szpila (2010). Five out of the seven skulls contained such elongated larvae which were easily identified as T. cynophila larvae (Figure 1), based on both their external morphology and their cephalopharyngeal skeleton. ...
The iconic fly Thyreophora cynophila has long attracted the interest of entomologists but, despite its re-discovery in Spain and France, its biology is still poorly known. The larvae and puparium have been described in detail but their feeding habits on large carcasses remain largely unknown. Here, we took advantage of a carrion pile containing the remains of wild boar (Sus scrofa) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) as well as of two cow (Bos taurus) carcasses to search for T. cynophila larvae inside the bones and skulls. We document the occurrence of T. cynophila inside the cerebral cavity of dead animals, containing the brain. From the carrion pile, out of seven skulls, T. cynophila larvae could be found in five of them, and identified on the basis of their size, the shape and arrangement of the ventral tubercles, prothoracic spiracle and cephalopharyngeal skeleton. In contrast, no T. cynophila larvae could be found inside the nine bones we inspected. From the cow carcasses, no T. cynophila larvae could be found in the bones but one larva was found inside the cerebral cavity of one cow. In addition, other Diptera and Coleoptera larvae were found inside the bones.
Résumé. Présence de larves de la mouche gypaète Thyreophora cynophila (Panzer, 1798) (Diptera: Piophilidae) dans la cavité cérébrale de carcasses de grands mammifères, et signalement de différentes larves d'insectes à l'intérieur d'os de ces carcasses. La mouche gypaète, Thyreophora cynophila, suscite de longue date l'intérêt des entomologistes mais, malgré sa redécouverte en Espagne et en France, sa biologie demeure largement méconnue. La morphologie des larves et des pupes a été décrite avec précision mais leur comportement alimentaire, notamment leur éventuel choix de substrat sur une carcasse n'a pas été étudié. Ici, nous avons tiré profit d'un charnier cynégétique contenant des restes de sangliers (Sus scrofa) et de cerfs (Cervus elaphus) ainsi que de deux carcasses de vaches (Bos taurus) trouvées dans des alpages, pour chercher des larves de T. cynophila à l'intérieur d'os et à l'intérieur de la cavité cérébrale. Des larves de T. cynophila ont été trouvées dans cinq crânes sur sept examinés. Elles ont été identifiées sur la base de leur taille, de leur forme, de l'arrangement des tubercules ventraux, des spiracles prothoraciques et du squelette céphalo-pharyngien. Au contraire, aucune larve de T. cynophila n'a été trouvée dans les neuf os inspectés. Aucune larve de T. cynophila n'a été trouvée non plus dans les os issus des deux carcasses de vaches mais une larve a été trouvée dans la cavité cérébrale de l'une d'elles. Par ailleurs, des larves de différentes espèces de Diptères et Coléoptères ont été trouvées à l'intérieur de plusieurs os examinés.
... Beef (muscle) was used as bait and food source to collect and rear eggs laid by wild female blowflies. Identification of C. vicina adults was carried out using the keys of Szpila (2009). The population was maintained in four insect cages (21 cm × 23 cm × 30 cm) with a maximum of 250 adult flies per cage. ...
The role of insects in the transfer of radionuclides has received little attention, despite their key role in nutrient cycling within ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the trophic food chain transfer of radiocaesium (¹³⁷Cs) from reindeer meat to the blowfly Calliphora vicina (Robineau-Desvoidy) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) and further from blowfly pupae to the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). Radiocaesium was transferred to blowfly larvae during their feeding stage, with the highest whole-organism to food source concentration ratios (CRwo-fs) being found in actively feeding third instar blowfly larvae, with CRwo-fs in the range of 0.68–0.90. CRwo-fs in blowfly larvae at later developmental stages (i.e., post-feeding stage, prepupal stage, pupal stage, and adult stage) were significantly lower, with CRwo-fs in adult flies in the range of 0.07–0.10. Modelling of the data indicated that >70 % of the radiocaesium present in third instar feeding stage larvae was removed exponentially with excreta prior to pupariation. Furthermore, on average 49 % of the radiocaesium activity concentration assimilated in the metamorphing blowfly pupa was retained in the pupal case after the adult blowfly had emerged. When blowfly pupae were parasitised by parasitoid wasps, a greater proportion of radiocaesium was retained in the parasitised pupal case, with only 2–3 % of the activity concentration in the meat being found in the wasps, providing further evidence to support that radiocaesium is biodiluted in insect food chains. Our results indicate that carcass decomposition driven by insects directly affects the fate of radiocaesium retained in vertebrate carcasses and we discuss these findings in connection to radiocaesium cycling and dispersion in terrestrial ecosystems.
... Unfortunately, while the posterior end is easily found intact even after adult emergence, unlike other necrophagous flies such as Calliphoridae (Szpila, 2010) and Muscidae (Giordani et al., 2018;Grzywacz et al., 2015;Grzywacz et al., 2017;Skidmore, 1985), the posterior spiracles of the Piophilidae are not very informative for species discrimination. In all the analysed species, the posterior spiracles have an oval-rounded shape of approximately same size, and the three respiratory slits are radially disposed. ...
... The morphology of the tips, the continuous or interrupted pattern, and the orientation towards the posterior or anterior end of the puparium are all reliable characters to discriminate among even closely related species within the same genus. It is worth mentioning the fact that the shape and arrangement of spines are also crucial for identification of preimaginal stages of Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae (Szpila, 2010;Szpila et al., 2015). ...
Piophilidae are a small family of Diptera with a worldwide distribution and which are historically associated with human activities. In addition to their economic importance, piophilid larvae can also be of medical and legal relevance. Within a medicolegal context, piophilids are frequently associated with cadavers in advanced stages of decomposition, thus being potentially useful forensic indicators and they have been reported also from archaeo‐funerary contexts. An accurate species identification is therefore an essential prerequisite to ensure the reliable analysis of insect material in medical, forensic and archaeological investigations. Identification of the adult piophilid flies is possible because of the availability of identification keys, in contrast immature insects, especially puparia, have been poorly investigated and described. In this paper, puparia of 11 species of forensic interest (Piophila casei, Piophila megastigmata, Parapiophila atrifrons, Parapiophila flavipes, Parapiophila vulgaris, Protopiophila litigata, Liopiophila varipes, Prochyliza nigrimana, Prochyliza xanthosoma and Stearibia nigriceps in subtribe Piophilina and Centrophlebomyia furcata in subtribe Thyreophorina) are described and a molecular analysis, based on the COI sequencing, is presented to show the potential of the molecular approach in their identification. Diptera play an important role in cadaver decomposition and their puparia can be found months, years and centuries after the death. Piophilidae are often recorded from decomposing bodies and their puparia identification is difficult and often impossible due to the lack of identification keys and DNA sequences in the genetic databases. Authors describe the puparia of 11 species of forensic interest and provide an identification key based on the spiracles and on the ventral spinose bands. DNA analysis is also presented.
