The Diversity of Forensic Entomofauna Associated With Decaying Chicken Liver in the Tropical Region of Kerala, India
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Forensic entomology To elucidate the time of death based on insect evidence, there are several studies on forensic entomology on life cycles, environmental factors, and feeding habitats of insects. However, there have not been any comprehensive studies on forensic entomology and its usage in forensic inquiry specific to the region, especially Kerala, India. The insect succession on decomposed animal matter plays an important role in estimating minimum postmortem intervals (mPMI). Objective The purpose of the study was to understand forensically important insect groups and their role in the decomposition process of dead decaying matter. The different decomposition stages of a corpse vary in attraction to necrophagous insects and the insect fauna depending on its prevailing conditions of decay. The decomposition is highly dependent on the exposition of animal matter and abiotic and biotic factors acting on it. The main objective of the present investigation was to identify the insect fauna associated with decaying chicken liver. The study also envisages comprising the diversity and abundance of insects between two different treatments of animal matter: in contact with soil and controlled conditions in a clean basin. Method The study was conducted for 45 days (until the total decomposition of the samples in both conditions) during the pre-monsoon months of April to May 2022 at Chalikadavu, Muvattupuzha, in the Ernakulam district, Kerala, India. The samples were however kept away from direct sunlight and rain to avoid the direct impact on the orienting fauna. The entomofauna found to be associated with the decaying animal matter was carefully collected from the site and stored in 70% isopropyl alcohol for preservation. The total number of insects was recorded along with the hours of maximum incidence, and samples were stored in plastic vials for further identification. Result In this study, we analyzed the activities of ants, mites, wasps, cockroaches, moths, beetles, and flies during the decomposition of decaying chicken liver. Among these insects, flies and beetles are two important arthropod communities associated with animal matter decomposition. We collected these foraging organisms for morpho-taxonomic identification. The decomposition stages among the two treatments could help to understand the variable factors in the decomposition of decaying corpse with special reference to the insect fauna acting on it. Conclusion We got 100 specimens comprising 28 species in 17 families from Blattidae, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera. Besides this, we identified two parasitic wasps with their host (dipteran pupa), which is helpful in postmortem interval (PMI) estimation. Our analysis showed an association between decay and the activity of carrion insects. The decomposition stages among the two treatments could help to understand the variable factors in the decomposition of a decaying corpse with special reference to the insect fauna acting upon it.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".