Forensic Entomologist Upends Conventional Theory on Order of Bugs That Feast on Corpses

Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 12:20 in Biology & Nature

When a human body calls it quits, it can take as few as 30 seconds for blowflies to begin feasting on it. For the next several hours to days, a carnival of blowflies, other flies and beetles make the departed their personal bed-and-breakfasts. A determination of that succession of insects is one of the tools that crime-scene investigators (CSIs) use to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI), or the time elapsed since death. [More]

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