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Carcaças de vertebrados são exemplos marcantes de recursos efêmeros e pontuais (Hanski 1986), sendo colonizadas por diferentes espécies de animais, dentre as quais se destacam os insetos, principalmente das ordens Diptera e Coleoptera. O estudo da sucessão dessas espécies, bem como o tempo em que vivem na carcaça, pode servir para determinar em quais circunstâncias a morte ocorreu e ainda estimar o intervalo post mortem (IPM) (Keh 1985;Catts & Goff 1992) dentro do escopo da Entomologia Forense.A utilização de insetos em estimativas de IPM tem se baseado principalmente por estes serem as primeiras espécies de animais a encontrar um cadáver, utilizando-o como fonte protéica, sítio de cópula e estímulo a oviposição. Uma outra característica importante é de que, como em qualquer comunidade recém-formada, haverá colonização do ambiente por tantas espécies quanto o recurso permitir, desencadeando um processo de sucessão heterotrófica que, se constante, pode ser altamente informativo (Catts & Goff 1992 ABSTRACT. A study of the Coleoptera (Insecta) fauna that inhabits Sus scrofa L. carcass in Curitiba, Paraná. This paper sought to assess the Coleoptera fauna associated with carcasses of Sus scrofa L., 1758, which is usually used as model in Forensic Entomology. The addition and sequential substitution of insect species could be used to estimate the post mortem interval (PMI). The present study took place in Centro Politécnico (UFPR), between september 2005 to september 2006. A pig weighting 15 kg was sacrificed each season and put inside a cage. Sampling is made daily in a tray placed below the carcass and in a Shannon modified trap, and each 14 days in five pit-fall traps. 4,360 beetles were collected, belonging to 112 species of 26 families, 12 were considered of forensic potential. The active collecting made in the tray was responsible for the largest number of beetles (2,023 specimens), followed by the modified Shannon trap (2,016 specimens) and by the pit-fall traps (324 specimens). Staphylinidae was more abundant in the modified Shannon trap, while Silphidae was more abundant in pit-fall traps. The main habits found are predator/parasite (55%) and omnivorous (38,05%), with only a few species considered necrophagous (1,31%).

Key to adult flies of dipterous species (Muscidae, Fanniidae, Anthomyiidae) associated to human habitats in Brazil. An identification key for the main 33 species of Muscidae, Anthomyiidae and Fanniidae occurring in association to human habitats in Brazil is presented. Most of the characters used for identification of the species are illustrated. Based on literature records, a list of the 65 anthropic species known to Brazil is also included

In an allozyme electrophoresis survey of 15 hypostomine species from the Itaipu Hydroelectric Reservoir, 25 loci from 14 enzyme systems were scored. Allozyme data allowed recording diagnostic genetic markers for all species analyzed and for some species groups within Hypostomus, a taxon which is taxonomically still unresolved in the Upper Rio Paraná basin. The mean expected heterozygosity of the species was considerably variable and hypotheses to tentatively explain this variation are discussed. A cladogram based upon the allelic frequencies of the species analyzed was produced by the continuous maximum likelihood method: Rhinelepis aspera and M. parananus were separated from the species of Hypostominae by a long branch length. Pterygoplichthys anisitsi was the sister of all the representatives of the genus Hypostomus. Within Hypostomus, two main clades were produced: in the first, H. cochliodon was the sister of the species comprising the H. plecostomus group, and in the second, the tree showed the following relationships: (H. albopunctatus (H. regani + Hypostomus sp. 3) + (H. margaritifer (H. microstomus (Hypostomus sp. 1 (H. ternetzi + Hypostomus sp. 2)). Hypostomus ternetzi and Hypostomus sp. 2 are referred to here as representatives of the H. ternetzi group.

Investigations were conducted on carrion attendant insects succession at two contrasting sites to determine if it was a discrete process or not. The visitation pattern of species revealed that saprophagous and predator species had complementary patterns of arrival and that percentage of reoccurring taxa ranged between 40 and 46%, except during winter when it reached 96%. The forested site always presented a higher richness than urban site, and at both the sites the tendency of species increase showed an exponential growth and then a decline. The arriving pattern was clumped in the earlier decompositional stages. At both the sites no clear boundaries werefound between the decomposition stages, thus suggesting a continuous process and also suggesting that the facilitation was not the process generating the observed pattern.

Hennig's holomorphology concept defines taxonomy as a process that synthesizes evidence from all relevant comparative sources. One possible source is metabolomics, in which the global metabolic profile is analyzed. An integral metabolic profile can be quickly obtained, nondestructively, through spectroscopy in the near infrared region. Here we use near infrared spectroscopy and chemometry to identify nine species of flies in the genus Neodexiopsis Malloch (Muscidae, Diptera). This genus is the most species-rich of the Muscoidea in the Neotropical region. Identification success demonstrates that near infrared spectroscopy may provide a new source of data to test and organize hypotheses of species delimitation. Comparing near infrared spectroscopy with DNA barcoding, spectroscopy may have even greater conceptual merit as a true barcode of life.

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Aim Environmental, spatial and historical dynamics are widely recognized as fundamental factors underlying community assembly along geographical gradients. We addressed the relative roles of these three processes on the taxonomic (TBD) and phylogenetic beta diversity (PBD) among 108 phyllostomid bat assemblages. Considering the bats’ dispersal abilities, niche requirements and tropical origin, we hypothesized that the current environmental parameters would explain most of the taxonomic and phylogenetic variation among these communities. Location Neotropics. Methods We assessed taxonomic and phylogenetic similarities among these 108 communities using species compositional data. To disentangle the effects of different processes structuring these assemblages, we conducted variance partitioning using distance‐based redundancy analyses. We also examined the spatial structure of these communities and used null models to test whether the assemblages are phylogenetically more or less dissimilar than would be expected by chance. Results Most of the variation in TBD and PBD was accounted for by spatial processes. Spatial influences were consistent for beta diversity components and for groups of species with distinct geographical range sizes. We observed a strong and non‐random spatial structure underlying the taxonomic and phylogenetic community composition. A pairwise comparison revealed that most communities had random variation with respect to phylogeny. Main conclusions Spatial processes were more effective than environmental and historical processes in explaining species and lineages composition of 108 Neotropical phyllostomid assemblages, a result that could be due to topographic complexities limiting species dispersal in this region, regardless of the bats’ dispersal capabilities. In contrast to previous studies of patterns of bat diversity at local and regional scales, our results suggest that the structure of bat assemblages is related to complementary ecological and evolutionary processes at different levels of diversity and geographical scales throughout the Neotropics.