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Image result for use of maggot to determine time of death





The time since death is an important parameter in post-mortem examination. Maggots  when present on the dead body should be used to calculate the time since death. The various species of the flies such as blowflies lay their eggs on the natural orifices and the wounds. The eggs hatch in the maggots. The stages of the maggot's development are called as instars. 
Image result for instars
maggot instars



This method of using maggot age and development stage can give a date of death accurate to a day or less, or a range of days, and is used in the first few weeks after death. Maggots are larvae or immature stages of Diptera or two-winged flies. The insects used in this method are those that arrive first on the corpse, that is, the Calliphoridae or blowflies. These flies are attracted to a corpse very soon after death. They lay their eggs on the corpse, usually in a wound, if present, or if not, then in any of the natural orifices. Their development follows a set, predictable, cycle.


The insect egg is laid in batches on the corpse and hatches, after a set period of time, into a first instar (or stage) larva. The larva feeds on the corpse and moults into a second instar larva. The larva continues to feed and develop into a third instar larva. The stage can be determined by size and the number of spiracles (breathing holes). When in the third instar, the larva continues to feed for a while then it stops feeding and wanders away from the corpse, either into the clothes or the soil, to find a safe place to pupate. This non-feeding wandering stage is called a prepupa. The larva then loosens itself from its outer skin, but remains inside. This outer shell hardens, or tans, into a hard protective outer shell, or pupal case, which shields the insect as it metamorphoses into an adult. Freshly formed pupae are pale in colour, but darken to a deep brown in a few hours. After a number of days, an adult fly will emerge from the pupa and the cycle will begin again. When the adult has emerged, the empty pupal case is left behind as evidence that a fly developed and emerged.
Each of these developmental stages takes a set, known time. The time since death calculated from the other changes in the dead body after the death are compared with the development stages of maggots to know the exact time since death.

Image result for blow flies
blow fly


This time period is based on the availability of food and the temperature. In the case of a human corpse, food availability is not usually a limiting factor.
Insects are 'cold blooded', so their development is extremely temperature dependent. Their metabolic rate is increased with increased temperature, which results in a faster rate of development, so that the duration of development decreases in a linear manner with increased temperature, and vice-versa.
An analysis of the oldest stage of insect on the corpse and the temperature of the region in which the body was discovered leads to a day or range of days in which the first insects oviposited or laid eggs on the corpse. This, in turn, leads to a day, or range of days, during which death occurred. For example, if the oldest insects are 7 days old, then the decedent has been dead for at least 7 days. 

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