Seasonal study on succession of forensically significant entomofauna under indoor environment in Punjab, India

This study was focused on the prevalence of carrion insects under indoor environment, during the five seasons, i.e., winter, summer, monsson, post-monsoon, and spring. The pig carcasses were placed inside a room and daily (morning and evening) observations were made to collect the insect in addition to room temperature and humidity. A total of 1,187 insect specimens belonging to three insect orders: Diptera (692), Coleoptera (467), and Hymenoptera (28), 10 families, and 32 species were collected during the five seasons. The abundance and richness of each species varied in each season. However, it has been observed that the decomposition of pig carcasses was prompt in the monsoon season followed by summer, spring, post-monsoon, and winter seasons. Sarcophaga (Liosarcophaga) aegyptica, Boettcherisca bengalensis, Calliphora vicina, Megaselia scalaris (Coffin fly) were the exclusive species collected during experimentation. The data collected from these seasonal experiments can serve as the baseline data for indoor homicides, suicides, and related crime investigations as the insects collected from these experiments will help in determining the post-mortem interval of corpses belonging to that geographic location.