Alajmi RA, AlGhufaili H, Farrukh A, Aljohani H, Mashaly AMA. First Report of Necrophagous Insects on Human Corpses in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
J Med Entomol 2016;
53:1276-1282. [PMID:
27452291 DOI:
10.1093/jme/tjw113]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2016] [Accepted: 06/15/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Necrophagous species of insects provide useful complementary data to estimate the postmortem interval in forensic cases. Here, for the first time, we report on insect specimens collected from human corpses in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During the study, 14 beetle larvae were collected from the outdoor corpse (case report one) and five flies and seven beetles were collected from the indoor corpse (case report two). Sequencing was performed to study the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as the prospective basis of an identification technique. The sequencing focused on a section of the cytochrome oxidase I encoding region of mtDNA. Two beetle species, Dermestes frischii (Kugelann) and Dermestes maculatus (De Geer) (Coleoptera: Dermestidae), and one fly species, Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), were identified. These results will be instrumental in the implementation of a Saudi database of forensically relevant insects.
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