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Carrion Insects
Carrion insects are those 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: # Necrophagous species # Predators and parasites of necrophagous species # 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 Diptera (true flies) from the families Calliphorid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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.aces the linkCluichí Identifying characteristics The antennae are three-segmented and aristate; vein Rs is two-branched, a frontal suture is present, and the calypters are we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forensic Entomology
Forensic entomology is the scientific study of the colonization of a dead body by arthropods. This includes the study of insect types commonly associated with cadavers, their respective life cycles, their ecological presences in a given environment, as well as the changes in insect assemblage with the progression of decomposition. Insect succession patterns are identified based on the time a given species of insect spends in a given developmental stage, and how many generations have been produced since the insects introduction to a given food source. Insect development alongside environmental data such as temperature and vapor density, can be used to estimate the time since death, due to the fact that flying insects are attracted to a body immediately after death. The identification of postmortem interval to aid in death investigations is the primary scope of this scientific field. However, forensic entomology is not limited to homicides, it has also been used in cases of neglect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 effect th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrion Insect Trophic Relationships
Carrion () is the decaying flesh of dead animals, including human flesh. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures, condors, 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. Some plants and fungi smell like decomposing carrion and attract insects tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spider
Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all orders of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every land habitat. , 50,356 spider species in 132 families have been recorded by taxonomists. However, there has been debate among scientists about how families should be classified, with over 20 different classifications proposed since 1900. Anatomically, spiders (as with all arachnids) differ from other arthropods in that the usual body segments are fused into two tagmata, the cephalothorax or prosoma, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen, and joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel, however, as there is currently neither paleontological nor embryological evidence that spiders ever had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centipede
Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New 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) creatures with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes are venomous and can inflict painful bites, injecting their venom through pincer-like appendages known as forcipules. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs, ranging from 30 to 382. Centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs; no centipede has exactly 100. Like spiders and scorpions, centipedes are predominantly carnivorous. Their size ranges from a few millimetres in the smaller lithobiomorphs and geophilomorphs to about in the largest scolopendromorphs. Centipedes can be found in a wide variety of environments. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Springtail
Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Entognatha because they have internal mouthparts, they do not appear to be any more closely related to one another than they are to all insects, which have external mouthparts. Collembolans 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 the 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. Some DNA sequence studies suggest that Collembola represent a separate evolutionary line fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Stinger, sting their prey. The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are Eusociality, 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 system, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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'', ''Cenocoelius'', '' Chaenusa'', ''Chorebus'', '' Cotesia'', '' Dacnusa'', '' Diachasma'', ''Microgaster'', ''Opius'', ''Parapanteles'', '' Phaenocarpa'', ''Spathius'', and ''Syntretus.'' These fall into two major groups, informally called the cyclostomes and noncyclostomes. In cyclostome braconids, the labrum and the lower part of the clypeus are concave with respect to the upper clypeus and the dorsal margin of the mandibles. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, 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 Parasitoid wasp, 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 (biology), metamorphosis)—that is, they have a wormlike larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they mature. 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 language, Ancient Greek wikt:πτερόν, πτερόν (''pteron'') for wing. The Ancient Greek wikt:ὑμήν, ὑμήν (''hymen'') for membrane provides a plausible etymology for the term bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rove Beetle
The rove beetles are a family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With roughly 63,000 species in thousands of genera, the group is currently recognized as the largest extant family of organisms. It is an ancient group, with fossilized rove beetles known from the Triassic, 200 million years ago, and possibly even earlier if the genus ''Leehermania'' proves to be a member of this family. 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. For some other species, see list of British rove beetles. Anatomy As might be expected for such a large family, considerable variation exists among the species. Sizes range from <1 to , with most in the 2–8 mm range, and the form is generally elongated, with some rove beetles being ovoid i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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