Insects' colonization of human corpses in warm and cold season

Abstract

The succession of insects is commonly used for estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI). In the warm season there are many insect species, which enable us to estimate the time of death, but in the cold season there are less species. For the estimation of a seasonal pattern, we examined 117 human corpses found in domestic environment during the year 2001. We found three typical 'summer species', active from May until October, three further species active from April until November. One blowfly species (Calliphora vicina) and the family of scuttle flies were active all over the year. These insects may be useful for PMI estimation in winter; however, further research concerning the developmental rate of scuttle flies is required. The distinct seasonal pattern of the early colonizing blowfly species allows to allocate the time of death to a particular time interval even in cases of long PMIs if empty puparia of these insects are found.