First records of Diptera associated with human corpses in Ecuador

Ana Belén García-Ruilova; Alvaro Barragán; Silvana del C. Ordoñez; Juan F. García; Jose D. Mazón; René Cueva; David A. Donoso

doi:10.1080/23766808.2020.1845009

First records of Diptera associated with human corpses in Ecuador

Ana Belén García-Ruilova^*, Alvaro Barragán, Silvana del C. Ordoñez, Juan F. García, Jose D. Mazón, René Cueva, David A. Donoso

^*Corresponding author for this work

Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Flies in the order Diptera are of forensic value because many species leave tractable evidence while harvesting nutrients from decomposing corpses. From December 2015 to January 2017, 41 fly specimens were collected in human bodies at crime scenes and autopsies across the south of Ecuador. Six species, e.g., Chrysomya albiceps (Widemann 1819), Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794), Synthesiomyia nudiseta (Wulp, 1883), Lucilia purpurascens (Walker, 1836), Hemilucilia segmentaria (Fabricius, 1805), and Stomoxys calcitrans (Linneo, 1758) were identified to species level using morphological (dichotomous keys) and molecular (mitochondrial COI barcodes) techniques. One additional specimen remains unidentified to species level, but COI barcodes assigned it to the genus Paralucilia. These first taxonomically curated records of flies in real cases constitute a tangible groundwork for the development of forensic entomology in Ecuador.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	197-202
Number of pages	6
Journal	Neotropical Biodiversity
Volume	6
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/23766808.2020.1845009
State	Published - 8 Nov 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Funding

The authors greatly acknowledge the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), and the Servicio Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses, district attorneys, forensic doctors, and collaborators at the different laboratories at the CICFL for their support to carry out this research. We thank the Escuela Politecnica Nacional, the Fiscalia General del Estado and your inter-institutional agreement for the support given to the development for this work. We thank Diego Marín, Hernán Lucero and Maria Lorena Riofrio for serving in ABG-R Undergraduate Thesis committee. Mariela Domínguez and Ana Torres helped in the COI laboratory.

Funders
Fiscalia General del Estado
Servicio Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses
Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja
Escuela Politécnica Nacional

Keywords

COI barcodes
Calliphoridae
Loja
criminal scene investigation
forensic entomology
muscidae

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10.1080/23766808.2020.1845009

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title = "First records of Diptera associated with human corpses in Ecuador",

abstract = "Flies in the order Diptera are of forensic value because many species leave tractable evidence while harvesting nutrients from decomposing corpses. From December 2015 to January 2017, 41 fly specimens were collected in human bodies at crime scenes and autopsies across the south of Ecuador. Six species, e.g., Chrysomya albiceps (Widemann 1819), Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794), Synthesiomyia nudiseta (Wulp, 1883), Lucilia purpurascens (Walker, 1836), Hemilucilia segmentaria (Fabricius, 1805), and Stomoxys calcitrans (Linneo, 1758) were identified to species level using morphological (dichotomous keys) and molecular (mitochondrial COI barcodes) techniques. One additional specimen remains unidentified to species level, but COI barcodes assigned it to the genus Paralucilia. These first taxonomically curated records of flies in real cases constitute a tangible groundwork for the development of forensic entomology in Ecuador.",

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AU - Barragán, Alvaro

AU - Ordoñez, Silvana del C.

AU - García, Juan F.

AU - Mazón, Jose D.

AU - Cueva, René

AU - Donoso, David A.

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ER -

First records of Diptera associated with human corpses in Ecuador

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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