Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sungai Buloh campus, 47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia.
Department of Forensic Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sungai Buloh Campus, Selangor, Malaysia.
Trop Biomed. 2023 Mar 1;40(1):1-6. doi: 10.47665/tb.40.1.003.
The estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is an essential information in death investigations. It is necessary to know the developmental data of the most important necrophagous insect species in every geographical area. Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is one of the most common species associated with human body decomposition, especially in the tropics, so a precise knowledge of its life cycle is crucial. However, despite its ubiquity, developmental data in a range of tropical temperatures is scarce. For this reason, the aim of this study is to provide the developmental data of the blowfly, C. megacephala, in a range of tropical temperatures and to apply these data in forensic entomology. Four temperatures were examined (i.e., 27.0°C 29.5°C, 32.0°C and 34.5°C) and the time of developments from egg to adult were recorded. To build the growth curves, five larvae per day were measured with a digital caliper. Accumulated degree-days were calculated and the isomorphen diagram for this species was plotted. As we predicted, the results showed that the life cycle of this species was affected by the increasing temperature. The implications of these new data for determining the minimum PMI in forensic entomology were discussed.
死后间隔时间（PMI）的估计是死亡调查中的重要信息。有必要了解每个地理区域内最重要的腐食性昆虫物种的发育数据。巨尾阿丽蝇（Chrysomya megacephala）（双翅目：丽蝇科）是与人体分解最相关的常见物种之一，尤其是在热带地区，因此准确了解其生命周期至关重要。然而，尽管它无处不在，但在一系列热带温度下的发育数据却很少。出于这个原因，本研究的目的是提供巨尾阿丽蝇在一系列热带温度下的发育数据，并将这些数据应用于法医昆虫学。研究考察了四个温度（即 27.0°C、29.5°C、32.0°C 和 34.5°C），并记录了从卵到成虫的发育时间。为了建立生长曲线，每天测量 5 条幼虫，使用数字卡尺进行测量。计算了累积度日，并绘制了该物种的同态图。正如我们所预测的，结果表明该物种的生命周期受到温度升高的影响。讨论了这些新数据对确定法医昆虫学中最小 PMI 的影响。
