The Growth Model of Forensically Important Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in South Korea

Abstract

Development of forensically important Lucilia sericata (Meigen) was analyzed in South Korea. Rearing was replicated five times at seven constant temperatures between 20–35 °C to elucidate changes in accumulated degree hours, based on developmental stage and body length, and 2673 individuals were statistically analyzed. The results indicated that the optimum temperature, the base temperature, and the overall thermal constant were 22.31 °C (±1.21 °C, 95% CI), 9.07 °C, and 232.81 ± 23 (mean ± SD) accumulated degree days, respectively. In the minimum ADH models of each development stage, nonlinear regression graphs were parallel at the immature stages. Based on the scatter plot (n = 973) of immature stages using ADH values and body length, the logarithmic model using Log10ADH as the dependent variable was identified as the best fitting regression model. Additionally, the adjusted R2 value and mean square of error were 0.911 and 0.007, respectively. This is the first forensically focused study on the development of L.sericata for the estimation of minimum postmortem interval in South Korea. In future studies, we intend to study the development of other necrophagous fly species and to identify parameters for the determination of age at post-feeding and pupal stages.