Development of Sarcophaga princeps Wiedemann (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) Under Constant Temperature and Its Implication in Forensic Entomology

Sarcophagidae are often the first sarcosaprophagous insects to colonize corpses in specialized cases such as indoor discoveries and burials, making them forensically crucial for estimating the minimum postmortem interval (PMI_min). Among these, <i>Sarcophaga princeps</i> Wiedemann (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) is a prominent species frequently associated with both buried and indoor bodies. In this study, the development time of <i>S. princeps</i> from larvae to adults at constant temperatures of 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, and 34 °C was studied, and the times required were 1090.00 ± 57.65, 721.00 ± 8.72, 562.33 ± 27.21, 416.67 ± 27.70, 356.33 ± 16.01, 327.00 ± 7.94, and 313.67 ± 5.69 h, respectively, demonstrating a significant inverse relationship with temperature. Various developmental models were constructed using the basic developmental data, including the isomorphen diagram, isomegalen diagram, nonlinear thermodynamic Optim SSI model, and logistic regression model. These models enable the estimation of the developmental age of the specimens. In addition, the lower critical thermal threshold (<i>T_L</i>), intrinsic optimum temperature (<i>T_Φ</i>), and upper critical thermal threshold (<i>T_H</i>) estimated by the nonlinear thermodynamic Optim SSI model were 11.11 °C, 21.85 °C, and 35.88 °C. This study provides comprehensive developmental data of <i>S. princeps</i> for PMI_min estimation.