Understanding diversity and distribution of the insect assemblages associated with carrions.

ABSTRACT

375 case studies from 120 publications published over the last three decades on forensic entomology were reviewed to determine how many carcass-associated insects have been described globally and which species are relatively important among carcass-associated insects. A total of 1213 carcass-associated insects belonging to 91 families of 10 orders were described from 375 case studies in nine habitat types of 30 countries with 24 subjects including humans and non-human animals. There were 564 and 515 species from the orders Diptera and Coleoptera, respectively, which was almost 90% of the total species recorded. The richness and distribution of dead body-associated insects considerably differed among countries, habitats, and dead body types. We propose some species based on criteria including distribution, occurrence frequency, and resource preference.