Necrophagous Diptera are the most important group of insects used for the purposes of forensic entomology. While the most utilized fly family in this context is the family Calliphoridae, there are several other families that can be of great importance during real-case investigations. This article analyzes the necrophagous flies of all families recorded from 160 real cases in Switzerland between 1993 and 2007. A total of 56 species belonging to 16 families was identified with Calliphoridae being the most dominant family (90.63% of all cases), followed by Muscidae (26.25%), Sarcophagidae (19.38%), Phoridae (14.38%), and Fanniidae (12.50%). For specimens that were difficult to identify morphologically, a new PCR primer has been specifically designed for the amplification of a short, informative COI barcode in degraded museum samples of forensically important Diptera taxa. The richest family in terms of species was the family Muscidae with 16 species. Fannia fuscula (Fallen) and Fannia monilis (Haliday) were recorded from human cadavers for the first time. The study highlights the importance of different fly families in forensic investigation, enhancing our comprehension of their prevalence and dispersion in real cases in Central Europe. The results pave the way for additional exploration, especially regarding the involvement of less frequently observed species in forensic entomology.

• Klíčová slova
• checklist, forensic entomology, necrophagous Diptera, real cases, species composition,
• MeSH
• Calliphoridae MeSH
• Diptera * MeSH
• entomologie MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• Muscidae * MeSH
• Sarcophagidae * MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Švýcarsko MeSH

Research on decomposer communities has traditionally focused on plant litter or deadwood. Even though carrion forms highly nutrient-rich necromass that enhance ecosystem heterogeneity, the factors influencing saprophytic communities remain largely unknown. For deadwood, experiments have shown that different drivers determine beetles (i.e., decay stage, microclimate, and space), fungi (i.e., decay stage and tree species) and bacteria (decay stage only) assemblages. To test the hypothesis that similar factors also structure carrion communities, we sampled 29 carcasses exposed for 30 days that included Cervus elaphus (N = 6), Capreolus capreolus (N = 18), and Vulpes vulpes (N = 5) in a mountain forest throughout decomposition. Beetles were collected with pitfall traps, while microbial communities were characterized using amplicon sequencing. Assemblages were determined with a focus from rare to dominant species using Hill numbers. With increasing focus on dominant species, the relative importance of carcass identity on beetles and space on bacteria increased, while only succession and microclimate remained relevant for fungi. For beetle and bacteria with focus on dominant species, host identity was more important than microclimate, which is in marked contrast to deadwood. We conclude that factors influencing carrion saprophytic assemblages show some consistency, but also differences from those of deadwood assemblages, suggesting that short-lived carrion and long-lasting deadwood both provide a resource pulse with different adaptions in insects and microbes. As with deadwood, a high diversity of carcass species under multiple decay stages and different microclimates support a diverse decomposer community.

• Klíčová slova
• Carrion, Decay stage, Microbes, Multi-taxa communities, Necrophilous beetles,
• MeSH
• biodiverzita MeSH
• brouci * MeSH
• ekosystém * MeSH
• hmyz MeSH
• houby MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

We assessed the influence of diet on the development and survival in the immature stages of the necrophagous beetle Oiceoptoma thoracicum (Linnaeus, 1758). The species is frequently observed on large cadavers, including humans, and thus can be of potential forensic relevance. We compared multiple meat tissues from three animal sources, and detected the optimal diet for rearing the species for further entomological and forensic objectives. We reared 203 individuals to adulthood at the constant temperature of 20°C. Our results represent the first robust data set of the development time for this species. They further confirmed a significant relationship between survival and the type of diet, as the highest survival rates were detected in larvae fed with both pork liver and pork muscle.

• Klíčová slova
• Carrion beetle, development time, larval instar, mortality, nutritional ecology,
• MeSH
• brouci * MeSH
• dieta MeSH
• entomologie MeSH
• larva MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• maso MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

In contrast to other necromass, such as leaves, deadwood, or dung, the drivers of insect biodiversity on carcasses are still incompletely understood. For vertebrate scavengers, a richer community was shown for randomly placed carcasses, due to lower competition. Here we tested if scavenging beetles similarly show a higher diversity at randomly placed carcasses compared to easily manageable fixed places. We sampled 12,879 individuals and 92 species of scavenging beetles attracted to 17 randomly and 12 at fixed places exposed and decomposing carcasses of red deer, roe deer, and red foxes compared to control sites in a low range mountain forest. We used rarefaction-extrapolation curves along the Hill-series to weight diversity from rare to dominant species and indicator species analysis to identify differences between placement types, the decay stage, and carrion species. Beetle diversity decreased from fixed to random locations, becoming increasingly pronounced with weighting of dominant species. In addition, we found only two indicator species for exposure location type, both representative of fixed placement locations and both red listed species, namely Omosita depressa and Necrobia violacea. Furthermore, we identified three indicator species of Staphylinidae (Philonthus marginatus and Oxytelus laqueatus) and Scarabaeidae (Melinopterus prodromus) for larger carrion and one geotrupid species Anoplotrupes stercorosus for advanced decomposition stages. Our study shows that necrophilous insect diversity patterns on carcasses over decomposition follow different mechanisms than those of vertebrate scavengers with permanently established carrion islands as important habitats for a diverse and threatened insect fauna.

• Klíčová slova
• Coleoptera, carrion, decomposition, forest, indicator species, necrobiome, scavenger, succession, trapping,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Necrophagous beetles of genus Thanatophilus are well recognized as a group of beetles with a high potential utility in forensic entomology. They can be used to estimate postmortem interval (PMI) or validate the value for other groups of insects commonly encountered on human remains, like blowflies (Calliphoridae). However, reliable tools for instar and species identification of their larvae are needed as such information is crucial for allowing accurate PMI estimate. One of the most common species of the genus Thanatophilus in Europe is Thanatophilus sinuatus. This species occurs frequently on human remains and its larvae feed on decaying tissues throughout their development. Therefore, the larvae could become useful bioindicators for forensic entomology, although their current description does not allow reliable instar or species identification. Our goal was to provide morphological characters for species and instar identification of all larval stages of T. sinuatus. The larvae were obtained from laboratory rearing under controlled conditions (20 °C and 16:8 h of light/dark period). Qualitative and quantitative morphological instar and species-specific characters are described and illustrated. Additionally, we report observations of biological and developmental lengths for all stages of the species. We also compared these morphological characters with recent description of T. rugosus and provided an identification key of these two similar and often co-occurring species. We noticed that some characters for instar identification were shared between T. sinuatus and T. rugosus and were confirmed by comparison with larvae of T. dentigerus that they can be applied to other species of the genus.

• Klíčová slova
• Forensic entomology, Larval instar identification, Morphology, Thanatophilus sinuatus,
• MeSH
• brouci klasifikace   růst a vývoj   MeSH
• forenzní entomologie * MeSH
• hodnotící studie jako téma MeSH
• kukla klasifikace   růst a vývoj   MeSH
• larva klasifikace   růst a vývoj   MeSH
• mikroskopie elektronová rastrovací MeSH
• optické zobrazování MeSH
• stravovací zvyklosti MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH