Ecology of Dermestidae, a family of scavenger Beetles associated with skeletonized corpses

Animal cadavers are colonized by a rich community of insects and forms complex local ecosystem. The purpose of this study was to characterize the relationships that may exist between Dermestes maculatus and other carrion-feeding insect species. Two questions were explored: (1) the interaction between Lucilia sericata and Dermestes maculatus and (2) the interaction between Dermestes maculatus and Dermestes haemorrhoidalis. For this purpose, experiments of interspecific predation, competition and aggregation were performed. Results show that neither Dermestes maculatus adults nor larvae interact with Lucilia sericata larvae (maggots): they were not attracted to a place where L. sericata larvae were present and they did not eat them either. However, without other food source available (no meat), starved D. haemorrhoidalis larvae did eat pupae of Lucilia sericata, which means they might be able to remove evidences of flies development. In the second part of the study, experiments failed to explain why only a single species of Dermestidae is generally observed on human corpses. Indeed, we did not observe segregation between Dermestes maculatus and Dermestes haemorrhoidalis: these 2 species were able to aggregate on the same spot. Furthermore, competition between these two species does exist but equally decreased the survival rate of the 2 species.