Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Zoology, 2002. / Typescript (photocopy). Cover title : 'The Ecology of inerterate associations with vertebrate carrion in Victoria, with reference to forensic entomology' Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-172).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed Jan. 13, 2009). PDF text: vi, 62 p. : ill. ; 2 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3315321. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

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published_or_final_version / Zoology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Forensic entomology is an emergjng field in South Africa. Little is known about South African blowflies and factors that affect their use in a forensic context. This work provides a review and synthesis of previous work in South Africa and supplements some of the background and basic knowledge required for forensic entomology in South Africa. The seasonal occurrence of eight forensicaIIy important blowfly species was quantified by fortnightly trapping in Grahamstown, South Africa. The spatial distribution of each species was related to seasonal occurrence and habitat preference. Seasonal distributions of blowflies in carcasses in South Africa were obtained from the literature and compared to the seasonal trapping. By mapping South African locality records of forensicaIIy important blowflies and analyzing these records in a modified Principal Components Analysis of climatic data, the potential geographic distributions of each fly species was modeIIed. Most species were widespread, but Calliphora croceipalpis, Jaennicke, 1867, was found in cold places. This information is important for determining where certain species are likely to occur in forensic investigations. Nocturnal oviposition was examined in both field and laboratory experiments. Lucilia species could oviposit nocturnaIIy in the field, while Lucilia species, Chrysomya chloropyga, (Weidemann, 1818) and C. putoria (Weidemann, 1830) could oviposit nocturnaIIy in the laboratory. These findings are important factors in affecting the precision of estimates of a post mortem interval (PM!) by up to 12 hours. The thermophysiological ranges of four species of adult blowflies were determined by measuring onset temperatures of four significant behaviours: onset of neural activity; onset of coordinated movement; shade-seeking and death. There was a sexual size dimorphism in Lucilia species, Chrysomya chloropyga and Calliphora croceipalpis with females being larger than males. Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) had an unexpectedly high death threshold, while Calliphora croceipalpis had the lowest death threshold of the flies tested. These points were related to the seasonal and geographic occurrence of each species, to nocturnal activity and placed in a forensic context.

Orientador: Claudio José von Zuben / Banca: Wesley Augusto Conde Godoy / Banca: Gisele Souza Rosa / Resumo: Em meados dos anos 70, moscas-varejeiras do gênero Chrysomya foram introduzidas acidentalmente no Brasil, sendo as mesmas de considerável importância médico-sanitária, podendo ser vetoras de enteropatógenos, causar miíases facultativas nos animais e no homem, além de poderem ser utilizadas em estudos forenses, na estimativa de intervalo pós morte (IPM) em cadáveres humanos. Nessas moscas, o estágio larval é o principal período em que geralmente ocorre competição do tipo exploratória por recursos alimentares discretos e efêmeros, em ambientes naturais. Após a exaustão dos recursos alimentares, as larvas abandonam o substrato alimentar em busca de um sítio para pupação. O objetivo inicial do presente trabalho foi o de fazer um estudo detalhado do período de mais rápido crescimento larval (PMRC) no desenvolvimento de larvas em dieta artificial em populações experimentais de Chrysomya megacephala (F.), atualmente uma das espécies necrófagas mais abundantes em vários estados brasileiros, sendo que, detalhes desse seu período de mais rápido crescimento larval e efeitos de interrupções no mesmo por falta de alimento, não tinham sido ainda devidamente estudados. Posterior à determinação do PMRC, período este com seu início às 48 horas e final às 72 horas do desenvolvimento larval para a espécie C. megacephala, foi determinado que o período mais crítico para interrupção da alimentação foi às 60 horas do desenvolvimento larval, sendo este no meio do PMRC. A partir deste resultado, procurou-se estudar detalhadamente diferentes períodos de interrupções alimentares a partir de 60 horas, para se obter dados de desenvolvimento dessa espécie em condições de falta de recursos alimentares por tempos variados, avaliando o que uma inanição alimentar no período mais crítico do desenvolvimento larval acarretaria na seqüência deste desenvolvimento. / Abstract: Blowflies of the Chrysomya genus were unintentionally introduced into southern Brazilian in the 1970's. These flies have considerable medico-sanitary importance, for they may be vectors of enteropathogens and cause primary and secondary myiasis in man and other animals. Besides that, they may also be used on forensic studies to estimate the post mortem interval (PMI) of human corpses. The larval stage is a critical period, since it is generally during that period that we can observe an exploitative competition for patchily distributed, ephemeral feeding resources on natural environments. After the exhaustion of those resources, the larvae abandon the feeding substrate searching for a pupation site. The initial goal of this work was to study in details the period of most rapid growth (PMRG) during the larval development. It was used an experimental population of Chrysomya megacephala (F.) reared on artificial diet. This species is one of the most frequent necrophagous species in many Brazilian states. There are no proper studies on the details of the period of fastest larval growth rate of that species, and neither on the effects of interruptions on this period caused by lack of food supplies. After determining that the PMRG for C. megacephala was from 48h to 72h of the larval development, it was concluded that the most critical period for the feeding interruption was on the middle of the PMRG, i.e., at 60h of the larval development. From this result, we tried to cautiously study different periods of feeding interruptions starting at 60h of larval development, in order to gather data on the development of this species when submitted to a condition of lack of feeding resources during different periods of time. With such data, we analyzed the consequences of starvation intervals on that critical period of the larval development. / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-03-17Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:40:04Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ruiz_ra_me_rcla.pdf: 1630746 bytes, checksum: cb67ed2f0aedd9869cabbf625a39bd27 (MD5) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / Em meados dos anos 70, moscas-varejeiras do gênero Chrysomya foram introduzidas acidentalmente no Brasil, sendo as mesmas de considerável importância médico-sanitária, podendo ser vetoras de enteropatógenos, causar miíases facultativas nos animais e no homem, além de poderem ser utilizadas em estudos forenses, na estimativa de intervalo pós morte (IPM) em cadáveres humanos. Nessas moscas, o estágio larval é o principal período em que geralmente ocorre competição do tipo exploratória por recursos alimentares discretos e efêmeros, em ambientes naturais. Após a exaustão dos recursos alimentares, as larvas abandonam o substrato alimentar em busca de um sítio para pupação. O objetivo inicial do presente trabalho foi o de fazer um estudo detalhado do período de mais rápido crescimento larval (PMRC) no desenvolvimento de larvas em dieta artificial em populações experimentais de Chrysomya megacephala (F.), atualmente uma das espécies necrófagas mais abundantes em vários estados brasileiros, sendo que, detalhes desse seu período de mais rápido crescimento larval e efeitos de interrupções no mesmo por falta de alimento, não tinham sido ainda devidamente estudados. Posterior à determinação do PMRC, período este com seu início às 48 horas e final às 72 horas do desenvolvimento larval para a espécie C. megacephala, foi determinado que o período mais crítico para interrupção da alimentação foi às 60 horas do desenvolvimento larval, sendo este no meio do PMRC. A partir deste resultado, procurou-se estudar detalhadamente diferentes períodos de interrupções alimentares a partir de 60 horas, para se obter dados de desenvolvimento dessa espécie em condições de falta de recursos alimentares por tempos variados, avaliando o que uma inanição alimentar no período mais crítico do desenvolvimento larval acarretaria na seqüência deste desenvolvimento. / Blowflies of the Chrysomya genus were unintentionally introduced into southern Brazilian in the 1970’s. These flies have considerable medico-sanitary importance, for they may be vectors of enteropathogens and cause primary and secondary myiasis in man and other animals. Besides that, they may also be used on forensic studies to estimate the post mortem interval (PMI) of human corpses. The larval stage is a critical period, since it is generally during that period that we can observe an exploitative competition for patchily distributed, ephemeral feeding resources on natural environments. After the exhaustion of those resources, the larvae abandon the feeding substrate searching for a pupation site. The initial goal of this work was to study in details the period of most rapid growth (PMRG) during the larval development. It was used an experimental population of Chrysomya megacephala (F.) reared on artificial diet. This species is one of the most frequent necrophagous species in many Brazilian states. There are no proper studies on the details of the period of fastest larval growth rate of that species, and neither on the effects of interruptions on this period caused by lack of food supplies. After determining that the PMRG for C. megacephala was from 48h to 72h of the larval development, it was concluded that the most critical period for the feeding interruption was on the middle of the PMRG, i.e., at 60h of the larval development. From this result, we tried to cautiously study different periods of feeding interruptions starting at 60h of larval development, in order to gather data on the development of this species when submitted to a condition of lack of feeding resources during different periods of time. With such data, we analyzed the consequences of starvation intervals on that critical period of the larval development.