• Question: Why do you use flies and maggots to determine TSD, why not any other animals?

    Asked by tozzal222 to Kat on 17 Mar 2011 in Categories: . This question was also asked by jaadehulley1997.
    • Photo: Katherine Davies

      Katherine Davies answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi

      Flies visit corpses immediately after death, other insects and animals do not. Also, an insect lifecycle is completely carried out on or in the vicinity of the corpse, so it correlates closely to TSD. We do use beetles in later decay stages to estimate which week/month the person died, as these only visit later on, again at set points in time. Other animals such as scavengers do not visit at set points in time which can be correlated to TSD.

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