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- Title
Searching the Soil: Forensic Importance of Edaphic Fauna After the Removal of a Corpse SALOÑA ET AL. CASE REPORT ADVANCED STAGE DECOMPOSITION EDAPHIC FAUNA.
- Authors
Saloña, Marta I.; Moraza, M. Lourdes; Carles‐Tolrá, Miguel; Iraola, Victor; Bahillo, Pablo; Yélamos, Tomás; Outerelo, Raimundo; Alcaraz, Rafael
- Abstract
Arthropods at different stages of development collected from human remains in an advanced stage of decomposition (following autopsy) and from the soil at the scene are reported. The corpse was found in a mixed deciduous forest of Biscay (northern Spain). Soil fauna was extracted by sieving the soil where the corpse lay and placing the remains in Berlese-Tullgren funnels. Necrophagous fauna on the human remains was dominated by the fly Piophilidae: Stearibia nigriceps (Meigen, 1826), mites Ascidae: Proctolaelaps epuraeae (Hirschmann, 1963), Laelapidae: Hypoaspis (Gaeolaelaps) aculeifer (Canestrini, 1884), and the beetle Cleridae: Necrobia rufipes (de Geer, 1775). We confirm the importance of edaphic fauna, especially if the deceased is discovered in natural environs. Related fauna may remain for days after corpse removal and reveal information related to the circumstances of death. The species Nitidulidae: Omosita depressa (Linnaeus, 1758), Acaridae: Sancassania berlesei (Michael, 1903), Ascidae: Zerconopsis remiger (Kramer, 1876) and P. epuraeae, Urodinychidae: Uroobovella pulchella (Berlese, 1904), and Macrochelidae: Glyptholaspis americana (Berlese, 1888) were recorded for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula.
- Subjects
CASE studies; ARTHROPODA; SOIL animals; CAUSES of death; FORENSIC entomology
- Publication
Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2010, Vol 55, Issue 6, p1652
- ISSN
0022-1198
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01506.x