Muscids (Diptera, Muscidae) of forensic importance visiting pig carcasses in Cerradão areas in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Muscids are of great forensic importance in the medical-legal area, since many species are found visiting and/or colonizing carcasses and corpses. These flies can help in cases such as estimating the postmortem interval of a cadaver or indicating whether it was moved from the place where it died. For these reasons, the objective of the present study was to inventory the muscids that visit pig carcasses in Cerradão areas, in Northeast Brazil, in two distinct seasons, one dry and the other rainy. The flies were collected with the aid of entomological nets from the initial stage to the skeletonization stage of the carcasses. We sampled 285 specimens of muscids, represented by the genera Biopyrellia Townsend, Cyrtoneurina Giglio-Tos, Cyrtoneuropsis Malloch, Haematobia Lepeletier & Serville, Morellia Robineau-Desvoidy, Neomuscina (Townsend), and Ophyra Robineau-Desvoidy. Three species were identified at a specific level: Biopyrellia bipuncta (Wiedemann), Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus) and Ophyra aenescens (Wiedemann). The most abundant genera were Ophyra (being represented by a single species, O. aenescens, with 80 % of the total sample), Neomuscina (with 6 %) and Cyrtoneuropsis (with 4 %), respectively. This is the first information about Muscidade flies of forensic importance visiting pig carcasses in Cerradão areas in Northeastern Brazil. The information on muscids presented in the present study is very relevant for forensic entomology, as it can be used to assist in the understanding of criminal cases involving corpses found in this type of environment.

Keywords

References

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