Evaluation of Efficiency of Schoenly Trap for Collecting Adult Sarcosaprophagous Dipterans

Abstract

Communities of adult sarcosaprophagous dipterans were evaluated using both Schoenly traps (BST) baited with rabbit carcasses and the traditional forensic methodology (TradC) in the Sabana de Bogotà, Colombia. During 42 sampling days, 2,726 adult dipterans were collected (2,291 by BST and 435 by TradC) belonging to 31 morphospecies (31 by BST and 23 by TradC) and 14 families (14 by BST and 10 by TradC). Significant differences in the species abundance, richness, diversity, and dominance were found between BTC and TradC. BST collected more individuals and species than TradC. Rank correlations and matched rank-abundance plots indicated a significant nesting of the dipteran community collected by TradC with respect to BST captures. By comparing the structure and composition of the collected communities, only those collected by BST showed repeatability of the results. The above-mentioned information allows us to consider BST as a superior methodology to perform inventories of Diptera imagoes associated with carcasses. In the community collected by BST, the most abundant and rich families were Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Phoridae, and Sarcophagidae, all of them necrophagous species associated with carcasses. Calliphoridae and Muscidae were dominant in the first stages of decomposition (fresh and active decomposition), and Phoridae was the principal family during decomposition, dry remains, and bones stages.