1. Forensic Entomology
Applies the study of insects (arthropods) to legal issues

2. Evidence provided by insects…
Time of death (provided by maggot instar as well as type of insect present)
Location of death (if a body is moved, it may house maggots/eggs of an insect from the primary location)

3. Insect Stages
1. Holometabolous: Insects that go through a distinct pupal stage and metamorphosis
Ex. Flies, butterflies and beetles

4. Insect Stages
2. Hemimetabolous: Insects only partially change throughout their life cycle (younger stages resemble adults)
Ex. Cockroaches

5. Those Deadly Buggers! Blowfly Sexton Beetle American Carrion Beetle
Beetle Larvae
Blow Fly
House Fly

6. BLOWFLIES / BLUEBOTTLES
- usually the first to inhabit
a corpse
- feed on fluids seeping
from body, begin to infest
any orifices, laying eggs

7. Larva - 1st instar (Stage 1)
initially feeds on fluid exuded from the body
migrates into body
hatching to first moult takes 1 day
Larva - 2nd instar (Stage 2)
moves around in maggot mass
first moult to second moult takes 1 day
Larva - 3rd instar (Stage 3)
still moves in mass
greatly increases in size
second moult to pre-pupa takes 2 days
Pre-pupa (Stage 4)
migrates away from the corpse seeking a suitable pupation site, (usually in soil)
does not feed
transforms into pupa
pre-pupa to pupa takes 4 days
Pupa
resides within puparium (a thick outer shell)
undergoes transformation from larval body form adult fly
pupa to emergence takes 10 days
Adult fly
mates on emergence from pupa
feeds on protein from body fluids
lays eggs on corpse
emergence to egg laying takes 2 days

8. Thermal imaging:
Scientists at The Natural History Museum, London, UK, are just beginning to explore the thermal dynamics of larval masses using infrared photography. The temperature of individual blowfly larvae can be measured. The still-born piglet appears untouched by insects in a normal photograph, but thermal imaging indicates an active larval mass in the throat and chest regions that causes an increase in temperature where the larvae are feeding.

9. The corpse of a 41-year-old medical doctor was found in his bed
The corpse of a 41-year-old medical doctor was found in his bed. The body was partially dried out; parts of the hip region were skeletonized due to maggot activity. In the facial region of the corpse, blowfly maggots were found exclusively in one eye socket. This is an unusual occurrence since on that side, a bed light (40 W light bulb) had been burning during the seven week post mortem interval. All other lights in the apartment were switched off, and no direct sunlight could enter the space where the body was found Obviously, the maggots who usually flee light had used up the one eye that was further away from the bedlight as a feeding source. Since the continuing mummification of the corpse led to a substantial restriction of feeding material, the maggots finally switched to the eye that the light was shining on.