IFO FORENSIC STANDARDS AND RESEARCH PVT LTD, INDIA
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Forensic Entomology is the use of the insects, and their arthropod relatives that inhabit decomposing remains to aid legal investigations.The applications are
wide-ranging, but the most frequent is to determine the minimum time since death (minimum post-mortem interval, or PMI) in suspicious death investigations.
The medicolegal section focuses on the criminal component of the legal system and deals with the necrophagous (or carrion) feeding insects that typically infest human remains.
Forensic entomologists are commonly called upon to determine the postmortem interval or "time since death" in homicide investigations. More specifically, the forensic entomologist estimates a portion of the postmortem interval based on the age of the insect present. This entomological based estimation is most commonly called the "Time Since Colonization". Based on the factors in a particular investigation, this may, or may not, closely approximate the entire postmortem interval.
However, there are many complicating factors that affect the rate of development of larvae on a body:
· Temperature (which can depend on geographical location, indoor or outdoor exposure, sun or shade, time of day and season)
· Heat generated by the maggot mass
· Food source (tissue type, e.g. liver, heart, lungs)
· Contaminants and toxins (external and internal)
· Burial or other obstructions (e.g. plastic sheets, water) that hinder access and egg-laying by adult insects.
All of the above need to be considered when estimating a PMI, yet for many of them, little information is available. For example, the elevated temperature due to the maggot mass can be readily appreciated by any angler reaching into a bowl of bait
maggots, but quantifying its effect on larval development still requires detailed study, for example using novel thermal imaging techniques
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