Entomology & Human Remains

No matter what type of insect you are looking at, one of the 3 main body parts is:

• head

• tails

• legs

• wings

The first type of insects to arrive at a corpse are typically:

• blow flies

• house flies

• rove beetles

• sexton beetles

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-2

As a forensic entomologist, you approach a body at a crime scene on which there are many beetles.

Beetles are in the order: 

• Coleoptera

• Diptera

• Diphtheria

• Cleopatra

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

After the first species of flies arrive at the corpse, the next types of insects will be ___ then ___.

• blowflies; beetles

•  

  house flies; beetles

• flesh flies; spiders

• cheese skipper flies; blowflies

Examine the stages of death. 

Rigor mortis will occur during ___ due to the breakdown of ___.

• autolysis; ATP

• putrefaction; oxygen

• butyric fermentation; muscle tissue

• diagenesis; nervous tissue

The radius alone can be used to give an exact height if the age of the individual is known.

• True

• False

A new development in forensic entomology involves the use of: 

•  

  DNA profiling of adult species to identify eggs at a crime scene

• DNA profiling of plants to identify insect type at a crime scene

• soil analysis to identify the species of flies at a crime scene

• soil analysis to identify the species of beetles at a crime scene

Forensic entomology may be applied to all of the following situations EXCEPT:

• inking a blowfly to a specific beetle

• determining the location of the wounds on a corpse

• linking a suspect to the scene of a crime using the same insect

• determining presence of drugs in a corpse

When beetles are found on a body at a crime scene, then you can probably estimate that:

• the person has been dead longer than a few days

• the person has just died

• the person was killed in a specific location and then moved

• the ambient temperature was too cold for flies

Generally, the body cools at a rate of about:

• 1 to 1  ¹/₂  degrees per hour

• 3 to 3  ¹/₂  degrees per hour

• 4 to 4 ¹/₂ degrees per hour

• 2 to 2  ¹/₂  degrees per hour

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS1-4

NGSS.MS-PS3-4