Journal
JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
Volume 54, Issue 5, Pages 1105-1112Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01113.x
Keywords
forensic science; forensic entomology; clothing and wrapping; blow fly succession; South Africa
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The influence of clothing and wrapping on carcass decomposition and arthropod succession was investigated to provide data to enable estimated postmortem interval in homicide investigations. Six pig carcasses, Sus scrofa, were divided into three sample groups, each with a clothed carcass wrapped and a carcass wrapped with no clothes. Two more carcasses, one with no clothes or wrapping, the other with clothes and no wrapping were used as controls. The clothed or wrapped carcasses had larger visible maggot masses, which moved more freely and these carcasses took longer to dry out. The blow fly maggot masses were dominated by Chrysomya marginalis and Chrysomya albiceps. Oviposition occurred simultaneously on all carcasses. High temperatures in one case caused significant maggot mortality. The Coleoptera community was dominated by Silphidae, Thanathopilus micans larvae, Dermestidae, Dermestes maculatus adults and larvae, and Cleridae, Necrobia rufipes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available