Entomology Flashcards
Name the 2 disciplines of entomology.
- Forensic entomology
- Funerary archeoentomology
Who demonstrated that maggots came from eggs and not through spontaneous generation?
Francesco Redi
What are the 3 fields of entomology?
- Urban
- Stored-Product
- Medico-Legal
What can use of insects give insight into in a forensic investigation?
- PMI estimation
- Body transfer
- Cadaver presence
- DNA
- Drug or poison presence
What is the classification system e.g. kingdom…?
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Tribe
- Genus
- Species
Who is known as the father of taxonomy?
Carl Linneaus
Define taxonomy.
Biological classification OR rank-based scientific classification
Define taxon.
A group of organisms assigned to a specific category
What is the phylum that insects belong to?
Anthropoda
Define anthropod.
Invertebrate animal with exoskeleton, segmented body and paired jointed appendages
Name an example of an anthropod, other than insects.
- Arachnids
- Myriapods
- Crustaceans
What are the 2 subclasses of the Insecta class?
- Pterygota
- Apterygota
What are the 2 groups in the Pterygota subclass?
Exopterygota and endopterygota
Describe exopterygota insects.
- External wing development
- Egg - Nymph - Adult
- 16 orders
Describe endopterygota insects.
- Internal wing development
- Egg - Larva - Pupa - Adult
- 9 orders
What are the 2 groups of the subclass apterygota?
- Archaeognatha
- Zygentoma
Describe archaeognatha and zyngentoma insects.
Primitive, wingless insects
What is the first laying of eggs meant to coincide with?
The point of death
What is an example of post-mortem artefacts caused by insects?
Insect feeding marks have been observed to be of similar size, shape and colour to ante-mortem cigarette burns
Approximately how far will insects travel for remains?
About 7 km
What factors affect cadaver succession?
- Weather
- Climate
- Ground condition
- Time
True or False: Youngest colonising species is used as a marker of initial colonisation.
False, oldest colonising species is used for this
What are the 4 types of invertebrates in cadaver succession?
- Necrophages
- Omnivores
- Predators/Parasites
- Incidentals
What are the times associated with the blow fly (Calliphoridae) life cycle?
- Egg = soon after death (less than 8 hours)
- Instar 1 = within 23 hours
- Instar 2 = after 2.5 days
- Instar 3 = after 4-5 days
- Pupa = after 18-24 days
- Adult = after 21-24 days
Define poikilothermic.
Internal temperature varies intensely so it is regulated by environment
What are the 4 factors that impact the species observed on remains?
- Social interaction
- Food availability
- Seasonality
- Environmental preferences
What is required to know about colonising insects to estimate PMI?
- Species
- Developmental stage
- Standard development times
- Temperature history
Define base/effective temperature.
Temperature below which growth and development won’t happen
Define degree days.
Thermal units representing proportion of environmental energy used by insects
Define accumulated degree days.
A given amount of thermal energy required to develop from one stage to the next
How does maggot mass influence decomposition?
Increases temperature and attracts other insects (which can slow or increase decomposition rate)
How does cocaine and heroin affect larval development?
Increases development
How is thermal history estimated?
- Weather station data
- Scene data
- Body temperature
What factors need to be considered when estimating thermal history?
- Sun effect
- Site & station discrepancies
- Clothing/environmental thermal properties
- Maggot mass
When would you expect denaturing of insects?
At very high temperatures above their developmental maximum threshold
Define developmental threshold temperature.
Optimum temperature, outside which development stops
