We demonstrate how micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) can be a powerful tool for describing internal and external morphological changes in Calliphora vicina (Diptera: Calliphoridae) during metamorphosis. Pupae were sampled during the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter of development after the onset of pupariation at 23 °C, and placed directly into 80% ethanol for preservation. In order to find the optimal contrast, four batches of pupae were treated differently: batch one was stained in 0.5M aqueous iodine for 1 day; two for 7 days; three was tagged with a radiopaque dye; four was left unstained (control). Pupae stained for 7d in iodine resulted in the best contrast micro-CT scans. The scans were of sufficiently high spatial resolution (17.2 μm) to visualise the internal morphology of developing pharate adults at all four ages. A combination of external and internal morphological characters was shown to have the potential to estimate the age of blowfly pupae with a higher degree of accuracy and precision than using external morphological characters alone. Age specific developmental characters are described. The technique could be used as a measure to estimate a minimum post-mortem interval in cases of suspicious death where pupae are the oldest stages of insect evidence collected.

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Developmental curves for Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) were established at 13 different constant temperatures using developmental landmarks and length as measures of age. The thermal summation constants (K) and developmental zeros (D (0)) were calculated for five developmental landmarks using the method described by Ikemoto and Takai (Environ Entomol 29:671-682, 2000). Comparison with the K and D (0) values of our findings to those of three previously published studies of C. albiceps suggests that K is directly proportional to geographic latitude, and D (0) is inversely proportional to both K and geographic latitude. Body size and developmental landmarks have a complex relationship because of trade-offs between mortality risk and female fecundity (as measured by body size) at non-optimal temperatures. This relationship can be summarized using superimposed isomorphen and isomegalen diagrams, which can then be used to make forensic estimates of postmortem intervals from larval body lengths. Finally, we recommend that future studies providing data for precise forensic estimates of postmortem intervals should use a relative temporal precision of about 10% of the total duration being measured. For many blowflies, this translates into a sampling interval of approximately every 2 h before hatching, 3 h before first ecdysis and 6 h before second ecdysis.

Background. Leiomyosarcoma, a mesenchymal malignancy with smooth muscle differentiation, is extremely rare in children. Immunosuppression, due to either antirejection medication in organ transplantation recipients or human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV), appears to constitute a predisposition. Methods. Two cases of leiomyosarcoma in pediatric liver transplantation recipients were investigated and compared clinically with respect to site of origin and course of the disease and pathologically by routine histology and electron microscopy, by forensic DNA methodology for origin from donor or recipient tissue, and by EBER‐1 in situ hybridization for evidence of latent Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) infection. Results. A 9‐year‐old male developed a high grade, poorly differentiated leiomyosarcoma in his allografted liver 2 years after transplantation, and despite antineoplastic chemotherapy, he died of metastatic disease. The genotype of his tumor indicated an origin from allografted tissue. A 12‐year‐old female had a low grade retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma involving the superior mesenteric vein. After resection, she remained disease free without chemotherapy. The genotype of her tumor indicated an origin from native tissue. In both tumors, latent EBV infection was documented. Conclusions. Neoplastic smooth muscle proliferation in immunosuppressed liver transplantation recipients is analogous to the more common posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorder in involving transformation of either engrafted donor tissue or recipient tissue elsewhere in the body, in displaying a wide spectrum of histologic differentiation, grade and clinical behavior, and in exhibiting evidence of latent EBV infection.

A variety of temperature thresholds for larvae, pupae, and adults of seven African species of carrion‐feeding blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) was measured and compared to understand their basic thermal biology and the influence of temperature on their behaviour. Calliphora croceipalpis (Jaennicke) had consistently lower temperature thresholds than all other species tested for all larval (42.9 °C), pupal (16.6 °C), and adult (45.6 °C) stages. Larvae (50.1 °C) and adults (53.4 °C) of Chrysomya marginalis (Robineau‐Desvoidy) had higher upper lethal temperature thresholds than all other species and weighed more than all other species. Pupae and adults of both Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) and Lucilia sericata (Meigen) had similar temperature thresholds, whereas Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann), Chrysomya chloropyga (Wiedemann), and Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) had inconsistent rank temperature thresholds between the larval, pupal, and adult stages. With a few minor exceptions, the nervous activity, muscle activity, and death thresholds in female adult flies responded at higher temperatures than conspecific male flies for all species tested. Similarly, female adult flies weighed consistently more than conspecific male flies for all species tested, except Ca. croceipalpis. These data suggest that there is a phylogenetic component to the thermal biology of blowflies, because Ca. croceipalpis belongs to a primarily Holarctic genus and shows adaptation to that climate even though it inhabits Africa. Comparisons between these temperature thresholds and the distributions of blowfly species present on three rhinoceros carcasses suggest that blowfly larvae with high upper lethal temperature thresholds (particularly C. marginalis) dominate in interspecific competition on the carcass by raising the temperature of the amassed maggots above the thresholds of other carrion‐feeding blowflies, through metabolically generated heat.