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Carrion Insects
Carrion insects are insects associated with decomposing remains. The processes of decomposition begin within a few minutes of death. Decomposing remains offer a temporary, changing site of concentrated resources which are exploited by a wide range of organisms, of which arthropods are often the first to arrive and the predominant exploitive group. However, not all arthropods found on or near decomposing remains will have an active role in the decay process. Ecological roles Carrion insects are commonly described based on their ecological role. Four commonly described roles are: # Scavenger, Necrophagous species # Predators and Parasitism, parasites of necrophagous species # Omnivore, Omnivorous species # Adventive species Necrophagous species Necrophagous species are insects/arthropods that feed directly on remains, or the fluids released from remains during the decomposition process. This ecological classification includes many species of the order Fly, Diptera (true f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Muscidae
Muscidae are a family of flies found in the superfamily Muscoidea. Muscidae, some of which are commonly known as house flies or stable flies due to their synanthropy, are worldwide in distribution and contain almost 4,000 described species in over 100 genera. Most species are not synanthropic. Adults can be predatory, hematophagous, saprophagous, or feed on a number of types of plant and animal exudates. They can be attracted to various substances including sugar, sweat, tearand blood. Larvae occur in various habitats including decaying vegetation, dry and wet soil, nests of insects and birds, fresh water, and carrion. The Housefly, housefly, ''Musca domestica'', is the best known and most important species. Some, from the genera '' Hydrotaea'' and '' Muscina'', are involved in forensic case studies. Identifying characteristics The antennae are three-segmented and aristate; vein Rs is two-branched, a frontal suture is present, and the calypters are well developed. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Forensic Entomology
Forensic entomology is a branch of applied entomology that uses insects and other arthropods as a basis for legal evidence. Insects may be found on cadavers or elsewhere around crime scenes in the interest of forensic science. Forensic entomology is also used in cases of neglect and abuse of a property, as well as subjects of a toxicology analysis to detect drugs and incidents of food contamination. Therefore, forensic entomology is divided into three subfields: medico-legal/medico-criminal entomology, urban, and stored-product. The field revolves around studying the types of insects commonly found in and on the place of interest (such as cadavers), their life cycles, their presence in different environments, and how insect assemblages change with the progression of decomposition (the process of "succession"). Insect assemblages can help approximate a body's primary location, as some insects are unique to specific areas. In medico-criminal cases, the primary goal is ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Post-mortem Interval
The post-mortem interval (PMI) is the time that has elapsed since an individual's death. When the time of death is not known, the interval may be estimated, and so an approximate time of death established. Postmortem interval estimations can range from hours, to days or even years depending on the type of evidence present. There are standard medical and scientific techniques supporting such an estimation. Examination of body and scene of death Changes to a body occurring after death ( post-mortem changes) include: * Algor mortis: body cooling; * Livor mortis: settling of blood in the lowest-placed parts of the body; * Rigor mortis: stiffening of limbs. Conditions at the scene of death affect the estimation of time of death. To ''algor mortis'', ''livor mortis'' and ''rigor mortis'', together with consideration of stomach contents, there needs to be some observation of environmental conditions at the death scene to accurately measure the PMI (Fig. 1). Factors that can affect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Carrion Insect Trophic Relationships
Carrion (), also known as a carcass, is the decaying flesh of dead animals. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures, humans, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia opossum, Tasmanian devils, coyotes and Komodo dragons. Many invertebrates, such as the carrion and burying beetles, as well as maggots of calliphorid flies (such as one of the most important species in ''Calliphora vomitoria'') and flesh-flies, also eat carrion, playing an important role in recycling nitrogen and carbon in animal remains. Carrion begins to decay at the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria. Not long after the animal has died, its body will begin to exude a foul odor caused by the presence of bacteria and the emission of cadaverine and putrescine. Carrion can harbor many infectious and disease-causing agents including viruses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Spider
Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all Order (biology), orders of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every land habitat. , 53,034 spider species in 136 Family (biology), families have been recorded by Taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. However, there has been debate among scientists about how families should be classified, with over 20 different classifications proposed since 1900. Anatomy, Anatomically, spiders (as with all arachnids) differ from other arthropods in that the usual body segmentation (biology), segments are fused into two Tagma (biology), tagmata, the cephalothorax or prosoma, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen, and joined by a small, cylindr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Centipede
Centipedes (from Neo-Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', "lip", and Neo-Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an arthropod group which includes millipedes and other multi-legged animals. Centipedes are elongated segmented ( metameric) animals with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes are venomous and can inflict painful stings, injecting their venom through pincer-like appendages known as forcipules or toxicognaths, which are actually modified legs instead of fangs. Despite the name, no species of centipede has exactly 100 legs; the number of pairs of legs is an odd number that ranges from 15 pairs to 191 pairs. Centipedes are predominantly generalist carnivorous, hunting for a variety of prey items that can be overpowered. They have a wide geographical range, which can be found in terrestrial habitats from tropical rainforests ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Springtail
Springtails (class Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern Hexapoda, hexapods that are no longer considered insects. Although the three lineages are sometimes grouped together in a class called Entognatha because they have internal Arthropod mouthparts, mouthparts, they do not appear to be any more closely related to one another than they are to insects, which have external mouthparts. Springtails are omnivorous, free-living organisms that prefer moist conditions. They do not directly engage in the decomposition of organic matter, but contribute to it indirectly through the fragmentation of organic matter and the control of soil microbial communities. The word ''Collembola'' is from Ancient Greek 'glue' and 'peg'; this name was given due to the existence of the collophore, which was previously thought to stick to surfaces to stabilize the creature. Early DNA sequence studies suggested that Collembola represent a separate Lineage (evolution), evolutionary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Wasp
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey. The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are eusocial, living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers. Eusociality is favoured by the unusual haplodiploid system of sex determination in Hymenoptera, as it makes sisters exceptionally closely related to each other. However, the majority of wasp species are solitary, with each adult female living and breeding independently. Females typically have an oviposit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Braconidae
The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis estimated a total between 30,000 and 50,000, and another provided a narrower estimate between 42,000 and 43,000 species. Classification The Braconidae are currently divided into about 47 subfamilies and over 1000 genera, which include ''Aerophilus'', ''Aleiodes'', ''Apanteles'', ''Asobara'', ''Bracon (wasp), Bracon'', ''Cenocoelius'', ''Chaenusa'', ''Chorebus'', ''Cotesia'', ''Dacnusa'', ''Diachasma'', ''Dimeris'', ''Microgaster'', ''Opius'', ''Parapanteles'', ''Phaenocarpa'', ''Spathius'', and ''Syntretus.'' These fall into two major groups, informally called the cyclostomes and noncyclostomes. In cyclostome braconids, the Labrum (arthropod mouthpart), labrum and the lower part of the Clypeus (arthropod anatomy), clypeus are concave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise inaccessible. This ovipositor is often modified into a stinger. The young develop through holometabolism (complete metamorphosis)—that is, they have a wormlike larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they reach adulthood. Etymology The name Hymenoptera refers to the wings of the insects, but the original derivation is ambiguous. All references agree that the derivation involves the Ancient Greek πτερόν (''pteron'') for wing. The Ancient Greek ὑμήν (''hymen'') for membrane provides a plausible etymology for the term because species in this order have membranous wings. However, a key characteristic of this order is that the hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Rove Beetle
The rove beetles are a family (biology), family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With over 66,000 species in thousands of genera, the group is one of the largest families in the beetle order, and one of the largest families of organisms. It is an ancient group that first appeared during the Middle Jurassic based on definitive records of fossilized rove beetles, with the Late Triassic taxon ''Leehermania'' more likely belonging to Myxophaga. They are an ecologically and morphologically diverse group of beetles, and commonly encountered in terrestrial ecosystems. One well-known species is the devil's coach-horse beetle (''Ocypus olens''). For some other species, see List of rove beetle (Staphylinidae) species recorded in Britain, list of British rove beetles. Anatomy As might be expected for such a large family, considerable variation exists among the spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
