The effect of temperature on development of Sarconesia chlorogaster , a blowfly of forensic importance

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The effect of temperature on development of Sarconesia chlorogaster, a blowfly of forensic importance Melise Cristine Lecheta1 • Patricia Jacqueline Thyssen2 • Mauricio Osvaldo Moura1

Accepted: 6 October 2015 / Published online: 31 October 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract Purpose The blowfly Sarconesia chlorogaster (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is of limited forensic use in South America, due to the poorly known relationship between development time and temperature. The purpose of this study was to determine development time of S. chlorogaster at different constant temperatures, thereby enabling the forensic use of this fly. Methods Development time of this species was examined by observing larval development at six temperatures (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 °C). The thermal constant (K), the minimum development threshold (t0), and development rate were calculated using linear regressions of the development time interval at five temperatures (10–30 °C). Results Development interval from egg to adult varied from 14.2 to 95.2 days, depending on temperature. The t0 calculated for total immature development is 6.33 °C and the overall thermal constant is 355.51 degree-days (DD). Temperature affected the viability of pupae, at 35 °C 100 % mortality was observed. Conclusion Understanding development rate across these temperatures now makes development of S. chlorogaster a forensically useful tool for estimating postmortem interval. Keywords Forensic entomology  Larval growth  Postmortem interval  Thermal requirements

& Melise Cristine Lecheta [email protected] 1

Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Parana´, Caixa Postal 19020, Curitiba, PR 81531-980, Brazil

2

Departamento de Parasitologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Caixa Postal 6109, Campinas, SP 13083-862, Brazil

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Introduction Forensic entomology helps determine postmortem interval by providing tools that estimate the time elapsed between the time at which an insect lays eggs on a body and its discovery (minimum postmortem interval, PMImin) [1]. Among the most useful methods for estimating PMImin is aging the insect larvae collected from the remains. To this end, fly larvae are commonly used because the stages of larval development and the time it takes for them to go through those stages are known for several species over a range of temperatures (using a species-specific model of accumulated degree-hours or degree-days [2]). Flies in the family Calliphoridae (Diptera) are the most frequently used group of insects for PMI estimation [3], using models of accumulated degree-hours. Sarconesia chlorogaster (Wiedemann, 1830), along with other Calliphoridae, has become a key species in forensics in South America because larvae are often found feeding on carcasses [4–8] and on human remains [9]. This fly is endemic to South America, in Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and southern Brazil [10–12]. One of the key components of using insects to estimate PMI is that their developmental rate is tem

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