Ant activity as a source of postmortem bleeding

Heath, Karen; Byard, Roger W.

doi:10.1007/s12024-014-9561-8

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Among these, 7 were case reports [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], 3 case series [6,20,21], 19 original articles [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], 4 were technical notes [41][42][43][44] and 8 were reviews [1,10,[45][46][47][48][49][50].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

et al. 2018

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The activity of arthropods on corpses has been largely investigated, since they can produce information to reconstruct the perimortem events. However, the feeding/movement activity of insects around the crime scene, among the clothes and on the body, can also cause some alterations that can lead to wrong reconstruction and misinterpretations. This article summarises all the postmortem arthropods artefacts related to the scene (i.e. fly artefacts and floor stripes) and the body (i.e. skin and other soft tissue alterations, bone alterations and hair alterations) that can mislead the forensic pathologist, discussing macroscopic and microscopic findings derived from forensic casework and from experimental laboratory studies, in order to provide a useful instrument to avoid misinterpretations and evaluation errors. Finally, some procedural notes for the documentation and the interpretation of findings are proposed.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The absence of bleeding was used to distinguish them from ante-mortem injuries. However, sometimes, considerable haemorrhage can take place, especially when removal of superficial layers of skin occurs in congested or hypostatic parts of the body [18].…”

Section: Antsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

et al. 2018

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“…If the lesion is interpreted as premortem mutilation, it could lead to an undesired error in forensic work (Campobasso et al . ; Heath & Byard ). In addition, ants may affect an usual process of insect succession by removing eggs and maggots of flies, that could cause a wrong estimation of the minimum PMI (Early & Goff ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Heo et al . ), ant‐induced postmortem artifacts (Byard ; Heath & Byard ), and ant species composition different upon death scenes (Chen et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While ants attend to all stages of cadaver decomposition, they often produce abrasions or injuries that could attract other necrophagous insects, thereby facilitating the decomposition process (Campobasso et al 2009;Catts & Goff 1992). If the lesion is interpreted as premortem mutilation, it could lead to an undesired error in forensic work (Campobasso et al 2009;Heath & Byard 2014). In addition, ants may affect an usual process of insect succession by removing eggs and maggots of flies, that could cause a wrong estimation of the minimum PMI (Early & Goff 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Positive and negative impact to decomposition of pig cadavers by ants (hymenoptera: Formicidae) at the Islet Yeongdo in Busan, South Korea

Park

2020

Entomological Research

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We observed how ants affected the decomposition process of pig cadavers. Experiments were carried out with six pig cadavers during three seasons without winter. Fifteen ant species belonging to 14 genera 3 subfamilies were recorded from pig cadavers. The species richness and species composition of ants were different significantly at bloated and decay stages from the remaining stages, regardless of season. Ant species Nylanderia flavipes, Aphaenogaster japonica, Pheidole fervida, and Ectomomyrmex javanus kept hunting a considerable amount of eggs and maggots of flies in the two stages. In particular, Lasius japonicus continually interrupted landing and ovipositing of flies and removed eggs and maggots from pig cadavers. Our observation suggests that ants may affect decomposition process of dead animals by participating in positive and negative ways by massive removal of eggs and maggots of flies.

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Caught in the act: impact of Crematogaster cf. liengmei (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) necrophagous behavior on neonate pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus L.) in the Western Cape Province of South Africa

et al. 2022

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Ants have been documented as part of the entomo-sarcosaprophagous community. They have been known to alter the process of carcass decomposition due to their ability to feed on fly eggs/larvae and create postmortem skin injuries. However, studies on the impact of ants on decomposing carcasses are scarce, especially within the Western Cape Province of South Africa. This study was part of a research project that utilized two ( 2) neonate pig carcasses in each month of the year to establish baseline data on the insect species associated with decomposing carcasses in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. In the early spring (September 2020), mid-autumn (May 2021), and mid-winter (July 2021) trials respectively, several individuals of Crematogaster cf. liengmei colonized the pig carcasses shortly after deployment. There, they fed on the flesh of the carcasses and further inflicted bite marks and conspicuous post-mortem skin lesions. Following the reduction in the presence of Crematogaster cf. liengmei specifically in the mid-winter trial, non-vital bleeding was observed as a consequence of the skin lesions. In the early spring, mid-and& late autumn (May 2021), and early (June 2021) and& mid-winter trials respectively, Crematogaster cf. liengmei prevented the formation of large maggot masses, principally through the predation of fly eggs, larvae, and adults. The observations recorded in this study are of considerable importance in forensic investigations as the effect of the necrophagous behaviour of Crematogaster cf. liengmei on decomposing remains can be misinterpreted by inexperienced investigators during crime scene investigations and may alter post-mortem interval estimations.

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Ant activity as a source of postmortem bleeding

Cited by 15 publications

References 4 publications

Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

Crime scene and body alterations caused by arthropods: implications in death investigation

Positive and negative impact to decomposition of pig cadavers by ants (hymenoptera: Formicidae) at the Islet Yeongdo in Busan, South Korea

Caught in the act: impact of Crematogaster cf. liengmei (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) necrophagous behavior on neonate pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus L.) in the Western Cape Province of South Africa

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