Abstract

THE TAXONOMIC COMPOSITION OF THE FORENSICALLY IMPORTANT INSECTS IN THE RABBIT CARCASSES DURING TWO SEASONS IN AN-NAJAF PROVINCE –IRAQ

Suhad Hameed H. Alboshabaa and *Harith R. Al Musawy

Abstract

This study was conducted to gather database information about forensically important insects on exposed rabbit carcasses at urban sites in An-Najaf province-Iraq during Winter and Autumn of year 2014. A total of 896.3 individual belonging to 10 species from 7 families under 3 orders were successfully identified from study sites. These orders were Diptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. The most important families of Diptera breed on carcass was Calliphoridae such as Calliphora vicina (Rob-Desvoidy), Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius), Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann), Lucilia sericata (Meigen), Sarcophagidae such as Sarcophaga africa (Wiedemann), Dermestidae was most important families of Coleoptera such as Dermestes maculatus (De Geer). The majority of the collected species were Calliphora vicina, Chrysomya albiceps and Sarcophaga africa. All of these species can used as forensic indicators to estimate the PMI.

Keywords: Taxonomic composition, forensically.