Evaluation of Insect Succession Patterns and Carcass Weight Loss for the Estimation of Postmortem Interval

Mojaba Salimi, Omid Chatrabgoun, Kamran Akbarzadeh, Mohamadali Oshaghi, Mohammad H Falahati, Sayena Rafizadeh, Mustapha A Yusuf, Yavar Rassi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study assesses the succession of insects on rabbit carcass. The study was conducted in sunny and shaded sites in the west of Iran during four seasons in 2016 and 2017. Based on the results of this study, various factors such as body size, carcass location, and carcass injury could affect the pattern of insect succession on carcass. In this study, we estimated the elapsed time since death (R2 > 0.98, P = 0.00) based on carcass weight loss during the stages of decomposition and the cubic method. Jaccard analysis was performed to determine the similarity of insect taxa during decomposition of rabbit carrion in two different sites during a period of four seasons. Succession pattern analysis for necrophagous insects in both habitats showed a similarity between bloat and decay stages for each habitat. On the other hand, pairwise similarities in taxa were low at the fresh and dry stages, however increased at bloat and decay stages of decomposition. This study shows that succession has some limitations in determining the elapsed time of death. Therefore, the use of source of information such as a weight loss model seems to be essential.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1410-1422
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Medical Entomology
Volume55
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Jul 2018
Externally publishedYes

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