Abstract
Current research involving studies of the effects of drugs on fly’s development has also allowed better estimations of Postmortem Intervals (PMI) or cause of death. Insects’ specimen collected from decomposing or decomposed bodies enable forensic entomologists to estimate the minimum Post-Mortem Interval (PMI) or cause of death. Drugs within a corpse may affect the development rate of insects that feed on them. This study consequently points out the possibilities of analyzing insects, larvae and pupae or empty pupa cases when suitable tissues or other source of information’s are absent. This study investigated the effects of commonly abused drugs on growth rates of insects. These results can be used by the forensic entomologist in forensic entomology for the postmortem interval (PMI) estimation or cause of death of decomposed bodies or tissues in medico criminal investigations.
Highlights
Forensic Entomotoxicology includes the study of the effects of drugs on the development rate of carrion-feeding insects [1], and the use of these as alternative sample in the absence of other tissues
Insect specimens collected from decomposing bodies enable forensic entomologists to estimate the minimum post-mortem interval (PMI)
PMI is defined as the time from death to discovery of the corpse; it is the most familiar use of entomological evidence in criminal investigations [33]
Summary
Forensic Entomotoxicology includes the study of the effects of drugs on the development rate of carrion-feeding insects [1], and the use of these as alternative sample in the absence of other tissues. The most common application of entomological evidence in forensic medicine [2] is the estimation of the time of death, i.e., of the decomposing interval [3,4,5,6,7]. In forensic entomology, the arthropod evidence associated with the corpse is most often used to estimate the elapsed time since death, or postmortem interval. There are two approaches available for estimating the postmortem interval using insect evidence, and the application of either one largely depends on the state of decomposition of the corpse at the time of discovery by humans. Normal life cycle of fly is shown in table 1
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