Taxonomic determination of third-stage larvae of sarcosaprophagous dipterans (Diptera: Calliphoridae, Muscidae and Sarcophagidae) sent to the Parasitological Diagnostic Laboratory, FMVZ-UNAM

Abstract

Forensic entomology is the discipline that studies arthropods and insects, mainly dipterans that colonize corpses and provide useful information in police and judicial investigations, with their most important contribution being the estimation of the postmortem interval. In Mexico, studies on flies in the forensic context are scarce. Based on this, the objective of this work is to contribute to the knowledge of dipterans of forensic importance by identifying diagnostic morphological characteristics of third-instar larvae collected from two biomodels (Sceloporus grammicus and Meleagris gallopavo). A total of three taxa were identified: one at the generic level (Sarcophaga sp.) and two at the species level (Lucilia sericata and Musca domestica). Among the third-instar larvae obtained from the two cadavers, L. sericata was the most common.