Estimating the age of immature Chrysomya albiceps (Diptera: Calliphoridae), correcting for temperature and geographical latitude

Abstract

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.

Effect of temperature on development of the blowfly, Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

“…Under natural conditions, the soil in which larvae pupate is never completely dry, and especially if there has been seepage from the corpse, the soil surrounding the crime scene is generally relatively moist. Many studies describe using a dry substrate for pupation [7,8,26], and keeping this in mind, the increased pupal mortality seen in this study may be attributed to the dry soil, which may in fact have desiccated the pupae.…”

“…The effects of temperature on blowfly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) development rate have been studied extensively [4], most notably in the genera Calliphora Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830, Chrysomya Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830, and Lucilia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830. An optimal temperature range for most species has been identified to be between 20 and 30°C, with development and survival being compromised at temperatures outside this range [7,8]. Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann, 1830) and Chrysomya chloropyga (Wiedemann, 1818) barely develop below a temperature threshold of 14 °C [9], while Calliphora croceipalpis Jaennicke, 1867 exhibits very low temperature thresholds [9].…”

Development Time Variability: Adaptation of Régnière’s Method to the Intrinsic Variability of Belgian Lucilia Sericata (Diptera, Calliphoridae) Population

“…Successfully emerging adults were recorded daily and removed from the box [14]. threshold (t L ) and thermal constant (Kt) from the median development time at each temperature [13,14]. In Régnière's method, the proposed distribution function is polynomial.…”

“…Such variability could also result from different experimental designs [6,11]. Furthermore, the given development time are mainly based on summary statistics such as minimum [3,12], median [5,13,14], mean [2,15], maximum [3] or percentage [1,4,16]. The use of these different sampling methods and types of synthetic parameters could bias the accuracy of the final published development data [14].…”

Records of Chrysomya albiceps in Northern Italy: an ecological and forensic perspective

“…albiceps is widely distributed in the Southern Palaearctic, Northern Oriental and Afrotropical regions and was recently found in Central and South America (Baumgartner & Greenberg 1984, Schumann 1986, Grassberger et al 2003, Verves 2004, Richards et al 2007.…”