Rivers David B
Department of Forensic Science, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
J Med Entomol. 2025 Mar 17;62(2):327-336. doi: 10.1093/jme/tjae145.
Developmental data for necrophagous Diptera are frequently used in medico-legal investigations to estimate portions of the postmortem interval and interpret periods of insect activity. These applications require baseline developmental data for local populations from geographic locations of interest. For the widely distributed blow fly Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Calliphoridae), detailed developmental data does not exist for many locations in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. This study examined development of C. vicina collected from a large, metropolitan city (Baltimore) in Maryland utilizing 11 ambient temperatures. The developmental threshold and thermal range of growth and tolerance were also estimated, as well as critical thermal minima and maxima based on thermal injury. For this population, linear growth was observed between 10°C and 25°C, whereas flies failed to complete development at temperatures below 7°C or above 28°C. Growth at low temperatures was not curvilinear, which contrasts with other developmental studies using C. vicina and other calliphorids. The lower developmental threshold was estimated to be 5.9°C and corresponds closely with experimental observations. The implications of these result in reference to phenotypic plasticity in populations of C. vicina and applications in forensic entomology are discussed.
食尸性双翅目昆虫的发育数据常用于法医学调查，以估计死后间隔时间的部分时长并解读昆虫活动时期。这些应用需要来自感兴趣地理位置的当地种群的基线发育数据。对于广泛分布的丽蝇科昆虫红头丽蝇（Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy，双翅目：丽蝇科），美国中大西洋地区的许多地点都没有详细的发育数据。本研究利用11个环境温度，对从马里兰州一个大城市（巴尔的摩）采集的红头丽蝇的发育情况进行了研究。还估计了发育阈值、生长和耐受的温度范围，以及基于热损伤的临界低温和高温。对于该种群，在10°C至25°C之间观察到线性生长，而在低于7°C或高于28°C的温度下，苍蝇无法完成发育。低温下的生长不是曲线型的，这与使用红头丽蝇和其他丽蝇科昆虫的其他发育研究形成对比。较低的发育阈值估计为5.9°C，与实验观察结果密切相符。讨论了这些结果对红头丽蝇种群表型可塑性的影响以及在法医昆虫学中的应用。
