Posted: December 31st, 2022

Forensic Entomology

Please review the following articles and then provide short answers written in paragraph form.

Byrd, J. H. (2013, July 9). Forensic entomology. Retrieved from https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1780557-overview#showall

Joseph, I., Mathew, D. G., Sathyan, P., & Vargheese, G. (2011, July-December). The use of insects in forensic investigations: An overview on the scope of forensic entomology. Journal of Forensic Dental Science, 3(2), 89-91. Retrieved from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health website: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296382/

1. What is the postmortem interval (PMI), which is also sometimes referred to as the postmortem index? How does forensic entomology Help in determining the PMI?

2. Other than PMI, what are three other uses for insects in death investigations and how can this help a death investigation?

3. Please list the six basic stages for the collection of insect evidence.

Format Requirements

Paper must be double spaced, 11 or 12 pt font and 1” margins all around.
All APA 7th edition format requirements must be followed.
You must have resources to support your thoughts/opinions/information. These must be cited both in text as well as at the end of the document. Your paper should not contain direct quotes, sourced material must be paraphrased.
Forensic Entomology

1. What is the postmortem interval (PMI), which is also sometimes referred to as the postmortem index? How does forensic entomology Help in determining the PMI?
Postmortem Interval (PMI) is the estimated time of death which is the time interval between the time of death and when the corpse was discovered (Byrd & Denton, 2019). Establishing the PMI has been fundamental since having this time frame will help in identifying the human remains and contributing to the investigations on the possible causes of death. There are numerous methods in which forensic entomology could be incorporated in determining the PMI which is also considered the time since when the colonization or period insect activity happened.
One of the methods is using the knowledge of insect succession by determining a portion of the PMI from the simple presence or absence of insects on the human remains (Joseph et al., 2011). This method has been considered the most accurate for cases where the PMI ranges from several weeks to months. One benefit of this method is the availability of using it seasonably, hence allowing the estimation of time since colonization over different seasons or years. Its disadvantage is that the data could take years to be generated and it needs limited application to the cases that are from geographic areas that are similar to an original succession research already done.
The second method is the insect temperature-dependent development where the rate of one’s insect development within the decomposing issues of the body is considered (Joseph et al., 2011). Forensic entomology allows the application of the knowledge of the insect temperature-dependent development to the time since the colonization estimation happened. This approach is based on the premise that insects will develop faster as temperatures increase above their ‘thermal minimum or their ‘developmental minimum’. One possible way of applying this method to the PMI estimation is using the accumulated degree-hour/degree-day methodology. the only disadvantage in the approach that it could imply a false of precision since the forensic entomologists have the tendency of speaking in terms of hours yet the data collected was reported as days.
2. Other than PMI, what are three other uses for insects in death investigations and how can this help a death investigation?
● Insect information could be used in determining the site of crime (Joseph et al., 2011). There have been reported differences between different insect species that are involved when a corpse is decomposing. Different habitats and environments do determine the kind of insects that will be at a crime site, the careful examination will demonstrate the species variations considering that the species affiliated with a particular habitable will be different to the species present when the corpse was transported after death.
● Insect data will be used in DNA analysis after identifying the respective species (Joseph et al., 2011). Identifying the right species is a fundamental starting step in estimating larvae’s age. Morphological comparison is normally done for identifying the species. However, it requires special expertise and can be time consuming. Thus, overcoming this challenge when identifying species could be done via the polymerized chain reaction amplification appropriate regions of the larvae genomes and comparing it to the reference data,
● Insect data could be used in identifying the presence and analysis of toxins within the human remains in a process called entomotoxicology. Specifically, the larvae that feed in the human remains could accumulate drugs that were ingested by the deceased individual (Joseph et al., 2011). The bodies that are at advanced stages of decomposition are normally challenging to examine for the presence of toxins. Thus, the larvae feeding on this body can be macerated and analyzed with various techniques such as thin-layer chromatography.
3. Please list the six basic stages for the collection of insect evidence.
1. Conducting visual observations at the death scene with respective notes being taken such as the habitat type of the scene, weather conditions, location and the body’s orientation (Byrd & Denton, 2019).
2. Collecting meteorological information at the death scene including ambient temperature, humidity and sun exposure.
3. The collection of body specimens includes two samples from every colonization location, a sample of the insect specimens that are preserved at the death scene and a sample for the specimens for laboratory rearing (Byrd & Denton, 2019).
4. The collection of specimens from the surrounding environment specifically, 20-30 feet from the body. This will constitute two samples from every area of insect activity, insect specimens preserved at the death scene and live specimens for the laboratory rearing,
5. The collection of specimens from the area directly below the body once it has been removed from the scene.this constitutes at least three soil samples that are taken from under the head, chest and pelvic area (Byrd & Denton, 2019). They should be kept in a different zipper top or whirl-pak bags.
6. Collecting the specimen during the autopsy process done by the medical examiner or at the coroner’s office. This would constitute the specimens preserved during the examination time and the live specimens for laboratory rearing.

References
Byrd, J. F., & Denton, J. S. (2019, November 9). Forensic entomology: Overview, historical information, trends in forensic entomology. Diseases & Conditions – Medscape Reference. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1780557-overview#showall
Joseph, I., Mathew, D. G., Sathyan, P., & Vargheese, G. (2011). The use of insects in forensic investigations: An overview on the scope of forensic entomology. Journal of forensic dental sciences, 3(2), 89.

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