| web page hit counters |
This web site is designed primarily to teach police officers and homicide investigators the minimal skills they will need to interact profitably with a forensic entomologist. It should inform them how to collect insect larvae at a death scene, how to send these larvae to an entomologist, and what they might eventually expect from expert testimony.
A secondary function is to describe to other forensic entomologists how I approach my cases, in the hope that this information will lead to a standardization and refinement of techniques. This is a new field, with only a few practitioners, and at present some of these work in different and sometimes incompatible ways. The methods I currently use are outlined here. These are of course evolving with time, as every case presents a slightly different set of circumstances, and has to be tackled individually; conversely, every case, if it is viewed with an open mind to its uniqueness, contributes somewhat to the whole, and thus to the competency of the investigator.
I also hope that this page will provide some insight for those who are contemplating becoming a forensic entomologist. Forensic entomology, although technically dealing with the relationship between the courts and insects, is in fact involved almost exclusively with maggots and flies. It is nothing more or less than the applied taxonomy and ethology of carrion flies. Therefore, to the extent this page addresses general methods, it will stress fly biology--which in and of itself is beautifully intricate--and not the more macabre aspects of case work.
Some of the more instructive of my past cases from an entomological point of view are outlined in the section titled "Selected Case Histories." My current methods are outlined in the text for the other sections that follow. These are based on a combination of my experience in forensics, and an extensive background in entomology. This background includes long experience as a taxonomist working on flies, and, before that, on scale insects; experience as an insect behaviorist; and last but not least, experience in my current and main business of rearing stored-product insects for life-history and other studies that I contract to run. I believe this combination gives me a unique perspective on a multi-faceted area like forensic entomology, that involves taxonomy of both pinned adults and slide-mounted larvae, rearing techniques in the lab, determination of life-history parameters, and an understanding of fly behavior in the field. I hope that I can impart some of this perspective here. I have yet to finish some of the sections listed. I should be adding more information in the next month or so.
One last thing. All the information presented here is original, in the sense that it is a record of something I have done myself. This is not a site compiled from references on the web or even from books on the subject. All the photographs and drawings are also original. The material on this web site is copyrighted. For now, anyone may reproduce any part of this site for their own personal use, and coroners may make copies for their office personnel. In the future I will probably include everything here in a book.
| web page hit counters |