#Forensic Entomology

[cinnastray]

For some reason people seemed to enjoy my little fly guys, so I decided to share them. They're nothing special, just a sketchbook study--but they're good beans.

[autopsyfreak]

Stages of Decomposition #2

Second Stage: Bloating

Once autolysis has occurred, the bacteria within the body begin to produce various gases, these include gases such as ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, etc. which result in the body bloating - during this time the body can temporarily double in size.

At this stage of the process, putrefaction will begin being produced, as well as the discolouration of skin and the presence of specific insects that have been drawn to the corpse by the odours being released.

The insects present on a corpse allow for the Post-Mortem Interval (PMI), also known as the time of death, to be determined via the study of forensic entomology. Certain species of insects will only be present upon a corpse within certain stages of the decomposition process. The species, as well as how many generations of these insects exist within the orifices of the body, allow for us to discover how long a body has been deceased.

[ingestingpoison]

third stage instar blowfly maggot sample, taken by me.

[forensicfield]

Forensic Entomology.

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[justcallmederya]

Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Entomology - Overview

Sometimes, all that is left from a violent crime are the skeletal remains of the victim. The careful analysis of bones can reveal many important clues about the identity and/or the type of injuries that caused the death of a victim. The scientific examination of the skeletal remains from a crime scene is known as forensic anthropology.

A dead body starts to decompose immediately upon death. The rate at which the human body decomposes depends upon the surrounding environment and micro environment of the body. If the remains of a victim have been left outside, insects and micro-organisms accelerate decomposition through infestation. Forensic entomology is a specialized field of forensic science in which the analysis and identification of insects found upon a victim’s body can lead to an approximation of the time of death and the cause of death.

The first criminal case in which methods of forensic anthropology were used was in the United States in 1849. Two anatomy professors were asked to examine skeletal remains found in a septic tank and furnace of an anatomy lab where Dr. George Parkman, a missing physician, worked. Analysis of the remains confirmed that the bones were the remains of the missing physician. This information led to the conviction of Dr. John W. Webster, a Harvard chemistry professor, who owed the victim money. Webster had killed and dismembered Parkman rather than pay the debt.

[coldhands-sunkeneyes]

I’m about to go to my mock crime scene for my forensic entomology class and we got our case reports. My decedent is Martin Goatsese (he is a goat) and he was last seen celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Goatfather with his longtime friend Robert Kidnero.

I swear to actual god if a fucking goncharov (or goatcharov) reference is made at any time during this project I will kiss my ta directly on the lips

[rosewind2007]

Our forensic entomology lecturer when I did my forensic MSc set up a time series of dead rats up on the roof of the faculty building (so newly dead rats to rats a couple of weeks old, if I recall correctly) and set them up in the lab so we could actually investigate the insect life colonizing them and OMG it was FASCINATING! The way newly emerged flies sort of expand their heads to push their way out of corpses

His lectures were great too, and he set some really interesting papers to read and then in the exam he set some fascinating questions which were more about whether you’d understood the sort of point of forensic entomology rather than there being right or wrong answers

I’m pretty sure he introduced me to the concept of aggregation of maggots and to Song Ci (Chinese: 宋慈; pinyin: Sòng Cí; Wade–Giles: Sung Tzʻu; 1186–1249) and his amazing book (with the story about flies landing on a sickle):

Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified or the Washing Away of Wrongs

entomologists are the most fucking wild people ive ever met

i pointed out a cool wasp to one and she just picked it up with her bare hands and started showing me different features she was using to identify the species

on a walk with another one he just paused, turned, violently shoved his hand into some rotting wood and offered me a tunnel web spider like oh okay i guess-

[simplyforensic]

Unlocking the Secrets of Death: Carrion Insects in Forensic Science

Published Date: 30 January 2024Journal: Forensic Science, Medicine, and PathologyAuthors: Beryl Morris New Geographic Location Data on the Occurrence and Abundance of Carrion Insects of Forensic Interest Abstract Forensic entomology is a crucial field in criminal investigations, utilizing carrion insects to estimate the minimum time since death. This paper emphasizes the need for comprehensive…

[somnas-writes]

Modern day Luffy would be an entomologist. He told his school counselor he wanted to look at bugs for a living and they signed him up for all the science classes. Somehow he’s made his way to being one of the top entomologists in the world

[aardvaark]

every time brennan says psychology is a "soft science" i’m like. bestie. beloved. i’m so sorry but i have to tell you something about anthropology

[a-very-tired-jew]

And those flies come in different sizes and colors. You'd notice the Blow Flies (Calliphoridae) first. These are shiny metallic flies that are typically the first ones to show up. You'd see glimpses of metallic blue, green, gold, and black in the swarms as they move through the air. They lay their eggs in clusters in orifices that are damp. The mouth, ears, eyes, and nose are the typical places we find them, but in a zombie scenario you'd see clusters in the bite wounds, the gaping holes in the sides of the body, and so on.

When the eggs do hatch the maggots then go to work and feed in what we call maggot masses. These are clusters of several hundred fly larvae all at once that can get up to 40C at their core. The maggots typically rotate in and out of the masses to make sure they don't overheat. Once they reach the 3rd larval stage though they will begin to exhibit a walling behavior. This means that you might see zombies with a slightly cream to tan portion of their body covered in black dots that are evenly spaced.

This is not new tissue.

The maggots have reached their largest size and are feeding face down on the corpse, as such their bodies resemble a wall of tissue because they're so pressed together. Those black dots are actually their spiracles, that's how they breath. We see this behavior from Phormia regina (the black blow fly).

However, there's also some predatory maggots, like Chrysomyia rufifaces who would show up after the others have been established. These are commonly known as the hairy maggot blow fly due to the fleshy protrusions on the body. They would feed on the other fly larvae present and then become the dominant ones on the living dead.

Then you have the Flesh Flies (Sarcophagidae). These guys are big grey and black striped flies with large larvae that can slice through gloves and cut your hand with their mouth hooks. Did I forget to mention the mouth hooks? Yeah, that's how maggots feed. The only sclerotized part of their bodies are hooks in their head that they use to scrape tissue into their gullets.

Now, rufifaces isn't the only predator on the other maggots, there are a multitude of beetles, ants, and wasps who would. So these zombies would eventually have swarms of these other insects crawling across their surface, plucking maggots from various orifices before the gap would be filled by another member of the mass.

Once they finish feeding at the 3rd instar stage the larvae would then enter the wandering stage. That's right, they leave the corpse to find a place to pupate to adulthood. In such numbers the ground would become a moving shag carpet of maggots seeking protection from the elements and predators. The shag carpet would then slowly darken over time, turning into a sea of small brown ovoid pupa that would then release the next generation of flies to continue the cycle.

If zombies were real, you wouldn't first be warned by the approaching horde by their smell, by their groans, not even a cloud of smoke of the dust they raise coming closer from the horizon. It would be the flies. Hordes and hordes of insects, corpse-flies laying eggs on the carcasses of people who still walk, eating the eyeballs from their sockets, climbing across their unfeeling leathery skin. And the buzzing. The inescapable, deafening buzzing. Everywhere. Like you did not just kick a hornet's nest, but the very ground you walk on was a hornet nest, and each step caused another explosion of insects.

Insects, corpse flies, the buzzing. Their swarms blacken the skies, more horrifying than their migrating meals. The deafening cacophony of constant buzzing, the horrid noise of the living who feast on the dead who feast on the living. The buzzing.

The endless, inescapable buzzing.

[elysium555]

man im so hyped that my high school has a forensic science class. our final is literally to investigate a mock crime scene

[weewooooweew]

she blow on my fly till i putrefy

[cringeworms]

He’s coming for Zakaria Erzinçlioğlu’s crown in the world of forensic entomology I guess.

the fact that will h. graham esq. apparently wrote THEE paper on elapsed time after death via bug-related decomposition is so funny to me bc that’s like a huge thing in forensics. my boy is famous in his field and what does he do? he fucks that old man

[ethereal-bumble-bee]

I checked out this book on forensic entomology from my local public library once and what I’d give to read it again once I get the chance

[slythevillain27]

Hey y'all, I have to do a forensic entomology project and I still haven't started because ✨the horrors✨ but I'd really appreciate some ideas for projects if anyone has any