Evaluation of the developmental rate of three species of Chrysomya immatures (Diptera: Calliphoridae) under the influence of methylphenidate and methylphenidate associated to phenobarbital

Abstract

The forensic entomology is the science that applies the knowledge of the biology and ecology of insects and other arthropods to assist with legal questions. The presence of these organisms at the site of a criminal scene may help, among others, to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI), the cause and manner of death, if there was movement of the body and even associate author suspects with the crime. However, it should be noted that the estimate of PMI may be subject to limitations resulting from changes in the biology of some species, such as feeding on certain substances, drugs or toxins that alter their rate of development, specially when present in tissues of who died by overdose. In entomotoxicology is investigated the effect caused by certain substances in the development of insects, besides the application of techniques to diagnose their presence incorporated into larval tissue. The increase in the number of toxicology studies is related to the high number of deaths related to drugs or toxins. This study aims at observe the effect of different concentrations of methylphenidate and the association between methylphenidate and phenobarbital on the developmental rate, survival and longevity of three immature species of Chrysomya (Diptera: Calliphoridae) of forensic importance, when added these substances to artificial diet offered to the development of these organisms. Studies focused on obtaining data on various insect necrophagous are of great importance for the formation of an extensive database to improve the accuracy in the PMI estimation. (AU)