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Insects
Special Issues
Advanced Techniques in Forensic Entomology
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Advanced Techniques in Forensic Entomology

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Role of Insects in Human Society".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 5566

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hannah Moore

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, Wiltshire SN6 8LA, UK
Interests: forensic entomology; cuticular hydrocarbons; GC-MS; PCA; PMI estimates; analytical chemistry; Diptera
Dr. Amoret Whitaker

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Law, Crime and Justice, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester, Hampshire SO22 4NR, UK
Interests: forensic entomology; blow fly ecology; estimation of minPMI; factors affecting blow fly colonization; thermal imaging; entomotoxicology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forensic entomology is an evolving field within forensic science and is gaining increasing importance in criminal investigations. The main application of forensic entomology is to determine the minimum time since death, which is achieved by estimating the age of the oldest developing necrophagous insects that inhabit decomposing remains. There has been an influx of within this field in recent years, leading to exciting advances which will greatly advance the area. These advances include molecular analysis, cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) analysis and micro-CT for species determination and CHC analysis and gene expression studies for aging. There has also been an increase in the number of papers utilizing methods that are typically applied in other disciplines, such as thermal imaging, toxicology and meteorological analysis, and these are significantly strengthening the research within forensic entomology. The field would also greatly benefit from applying stronger statistical confidence to datasets when presenting findings in court; thus, we are seeing more research that applies multivariate analysis and artificial intelligence.

This Special Issue will showcase the advances in forensic entomology to improve this evidence type. There is exceptional research being carried out in forensic entomology in institutions worldwide, which would be of significant benefit to criminal investigations. Bridging the gap between academic research and reporting forensic entomology is something that we, as a research community, should address.

Dr. Hannah Moore
Dr. Amoret Whitaker
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forensic entomology
  • minPMI estimates
  • entomotoxicology
  • necrophagous
  • succession
  • cuticular hydrocarbons
  • DNA

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1857 KiB  
Article
Age Determination of Chrysomya megacephala Pupae through Reflectance and Machine Learning Analysis
by Xiangyan Zhang, Hongke Qu, Ziqi Zhou, Sile Chen, Fernand Jocelin Ngando, Fengqin Yang, Jiao Xiao, Yadong Guo, Jifeng Cai and Changquan Zhang
Insects 2024, 15(3), 184; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15030184 - 10 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2433
Abstract
Estimating the age of pupa during the development time of the blow fly Chrysomya megacephala (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is of forensic significance as it assists in determining the time of colonization (TOC), which could help to determine the postmortem interval (PMI). However, establishing an [...] Read more.
Estimating the age of pupa during the development time of the blow fly Chrysomya megacephala (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is of forensic significance as it assists in determining the time of colonization (TOC), which could help to determine the postmortem interval (PMI). However, establishing an objective, accurate, and efficient method for pupa age inference is still a leading matter of concern among forensic entomologists. In this study, we utilized hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology to analyze the reflectance changes of pupa development under different temperatures (15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C). The spectrograms showed a downtrend under all temperatures. We used PCA to reduce the dimensionality of the spectral data, and then machine learning models (RF, SVR-RBF, SVR-POLY, XGBR, and Lasso) were built. RF, SVR with RBF kernel, and XGBR could show promise in accurate developmental time estimation using accumulated degree days. Among these, the XGBR model consistently exhibited the most minor errors, ranging between 3.9156 and 7.3951 (MAE). This study has identified the value of further refinement of HSI in forensic applications involving entomological specimens, and identified the considerable potential of HSI in forensic practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Techniques in Forensic Entomology)
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13 pages, 2921 KiB  
Article
Geographical Distribution and Multimethod Species Identification of Forensically Important Necrophagous Flies on Hainan Island
by Yihong Qu, Bo Wang, Jianqiang Deng, Yakai Feng, Zhiyun Pi, Lipin Ren and Jifeng Cai
Insects 2023, 14(11), 898; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects14110898 - 20 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1818
Abstract
Forensic entomology offers unique advantages for the minimum postmortem interval (PMImin) estimation of decomposed corpses in forensic investigations. Accurate species identification and up-to-date locality information are essential. Hainan Island has a tropical rainforest climate and a vast territory. In this study, the community [...] Read more.
Forensic entomology offers unique advantages for the minimum postmortem interval (PMImin) estimation of decomposed corpses in forensic investigations. Accurate species identification and up-to-date locality information are essential. Hainan Island has a tropical rainforest climate and a vast territory. In this study, the community structure of necrophagous flies on Hainan Island was investigated in detail according to geographical environment. The results showed that the dominant species included C. megacephala, S. peregrina, C. rufifacies, S. misera, H. ligurriens, S. sericea, S. cinerea, S. dux, C. pinguis, and M. domestica. Furthermore, C. rufifacies and C. villeneuvi were found only in the high-altitude areas of Wuzhi Mountain, while S. cinerea was distributed only in coastal areas; the latter is a representative species of Hainan Island and has not been reported before. Furthermore, a GenBank database of forensically important flies was established, whilst a high-resolution melt (HRM) curve analysis was applied to identify the common species of Hainan Island for the first time. This study enriches the database of forensically important flies in tropical rainforest regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Techniques in Forensic Entomology)
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