Succession of carrion fauna in the arid region of San Juan province, Argentina and its forensic relevance

ABALLAY, FERNANDO HERNÁN; MURÚA , ALBÉRICO FERNANDO; ACOSTA, JUAN CARLOS; CENTENO, NÉSTOR D

NEOTROPICAL ENTOMOLOGY

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC BRASIL

Año: 2012 vol. 41 p. 27 - 31

1519-566X

The succession of fauna and the decomposition stages were studied in the arid environment of San Juan province, Argentina. Two pig carcasses (Sus scrofa) were placed in wire mesh cages, 100m apart from each other. Each carcass was surrounded by pitfall traps, and a modified Malaise trap was placed above. Daily samplings were carried out to collect the insects present in the carcasses and the traps, and body and environmental temperature were measured. The main colonizer species was Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) and its larvae were dominant over other Diptera. The first adult blowflies emerged at 8.9 days. The time to reach the remains stage was eight days shorter than for other South American sites. We recorded the early arrival of adult Dermestes maculates De Geer and Dermestes ater De Geer two days after the beginning of the assay, and larvae of these species were recorded 4 days after. We determined a 1.5-day error in the PMI estimation using the temperatures measured in the assay and those recorded by the nearest meteorological station