Abstract
Carcass mass largely affects pattern and rate of carrion decomposition. Supposedly, it is similarly important for carrion entomofauna; however, most of its likely effects have not been tested experimentally. Here, simultaneous effects of carcass mass and clothing are analyzed. A factorial block experiment with four levels of carcass mass (small carcasses 5–15 kg, medium carcasses 15.1–30 kg, medium/large carcasses 35–50 kg, large carcasses 55–70 kg) and two levels of carcass clothing (clothed and unclothed) was made in a grassland habitat of Western Poland. Pig carcasses (N = 24) were grouped into spring, early summer, and late summer blocks. Insects were sampled manually and with pitfall traps. Results demonstrate that insect assemblages are more complex, abundant, and long-lasting on larger carcasses, whereas clothing is of minor importance in this respect. Only large or medium/large carcasses were colonized by all guilds of carrion insects, while small or medium carcasses revealed high underrepresentation of late-colonizing insects (e.g., Cleridae or Nitidulidae). This finding indicates that carcasses weighing about 23 kg—a standard in forensic decomposition studies—give an incomplete picture of carrion entomofauna. Residencies of all forensically relevant insects were distinctly prolonged on larger carcasses, indicating that cadaver mass is a factor of great importance in this respect. The pre-appearance interval of most taxa was found to be unrelated to mass or clothing of a carcass. Moreover, current results suggest that rate of larval development is higher on smaller carcasses. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that carcass mass is a factor of crucial importance for carrion entomofauna, whereas the importance of clothing is small.
Highlights
Carrion insects are useful for minimum postmortem interval estimation [1,2,3]
The results presented here demonstrate that carrion entomofauna is more diverse on larger carcasses
A comparison with results of Hewadikaram and Goff [18] indicates that lack of differences in composition of carrion fauna between 8.4 and 15.1 kg carcasses, as recorded by these authors, must have resulted from small range of body masses included in their study. This interpretation is supported by our results, as differences between small and medium carcasses in the current experiment were relatively small
Summary
Carrion insects are useful for minimum postmortem interval (minimum PMI) estimation [1,2,3]. In forensic practice, minimum PMI is frequently determined from the age of immature insects or less frequently from the successional patterns of the carrion insect assemblages [2, 4]. The age of an insect may be estimated from the age indicators (e.g., developmental stage or larval length) by using temperature models for the development of particular species and case-specific temperature data [2, 5, 6]. This approach assumes that developmental rate is largely dependent on the temperature to which insects have been exposed, and this temperature largely depends on the ambient air temperature. The classical successional method involves analysis of the whole insect assemblage present on a cadaver, of which one chooses two Bdefinitive taxa^: the one defining Blower PMI^ and the other defining Bupper PMI^
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