Development of Megaselia scalaris at constant temperatures and its significance in estimating the time of death.

Abstract

Megaselia scalaris (Schmitz, 1938) (Diptera: Phoridae) is a common insect in forensic science that is frequently found in indoor cases, particularly on corpses in closed environments. Although this species is useful for estimating the minimum postmortem interval (PMImin) in the absence of Calliphoridae, there is a lack of data on its development in China. Herein, we studied the development of M. scalaris exposed to seven constant temperatures ranging from 16 to 34 °C. The mean (± SD) developmental durations of M. scalaris from egg to adult stage at 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, and 34 °C were 1486.9 ± 75.3, 823.7 ± 42.8, 448.2 ± 59.8, 417.7 ± 19.7, 297.2 ± 27.3, 272.9 ± 10.4, and 253.0 ± 5.0 h, respectively. The mean (± SE) lower developmental threshold temperature (TL) and the thermal summation constant (K) were determined by a linear model as 12.69 ± 0.3 °C and 4965.8 ± 227.9-degree hours, respectively. A nonlinear model estimated the lower developmental thresholdtemperature, intrinsic optimum temperature, and upper lethal developmental threshold temperature as 14.58, 21.00, and 34.15 °C, respectively. We established three development models to estimate the age of the immature insect, namely the isomegalen diagram, isomorphen diagram, and thermal summation model. In addition, a regression analysis of the relationship between body length and total development time from hatching to pupariation was performed. Our findings provide a basis for applications of M. scalaris in PMImin estimations.