Questions asked by students about this week’s test:
Period 1: Thanks to Laura
Please explain how to answer Question #2 in “Questions for Forensic Entomology”
1) Ecological succession occurs in an environment that has resources that other organisms can use to
them survive. Explain why carrion is a perfect environment for succession of different types of flies,
beetles, spiders and other organisms.
If you are not sure what the word ‘succession’ means, this may be a difficult question to answer.
Succession is change over time. In Biology class, you may have heard about change in an area of land
over time from bare rockmoss and lichensgrassessmall plantstrees. Succession can also take
place on a dead body. Insect and arthropod species can change over time as the body decomposes.
What does this have to do with Forensic Entomology? If a body is found with predators of maggots and
older maggots, you know it has been exposed for a longer time than if only small maggots and fly eggs
are on the body. It is relative and not exact but it still can give clues as to how long the body has been
exposed.
I then asked about ‘Maggot Motels’…Do you know what ‘Maggot Motels’ are used for?
Used to determine the species of flies collected at the crime scene. You cannot determine the species of
maggots. They all look like little white worms. The entomologist will rear half of the sample collected to
adulthood in a ‘Maggot Motel’ and determine the species. Maggot Motel=rearing chamber.
Period 5
Period 6
The characteristics of flies that allow us to determine the PMI: Page 2 in PPT (two slides)