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A global perspective of forensic entomology case reports from 1935 to 2022

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Abstract

Forensic entomology case reports are the product of rapid development in the field, the widespread acceptance of the science and the application of forensic entomological knowledge. In this study, we retrospectively summarized information derived from 307 forensic entomology case reports from 1935 to 2022 from a global perspective. Our checklist of relevant information included insect species, specific indoor or outdoor preferences, preferred temperatures, and stages of body decomposition. Finally, a concept and calculation method for postmortem interval (PMI) estimation accuracy was proposed. There were 232 cases using insect developmental data and 28 cases using succession patterns to estimate PMI. A total of 146 species of insects were involved in the cases, of which 62.3% were Diptera and 37.7% were Coleoptera. Postmortem intervals were estimated from eggs in 4 cases, larvae in 180 cases, pupae in 45 cases, and puparia in 38 cases. The majority of cases were from June to October, and the average number of species mentioned in the cases was more at 15–30 °C. Considering the standardization of application, in the majority of cases, insect evidence was collected by other personnel and sent to forensic entomologists, there was a delay in the sampling, and the scene or meteorological data were directly used without correcting. Our data shows that there are still many shortcomings in the universality and standardization of forensic entomology in its practical application.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are deeply saddened and miss the sudden death of Professor Jiangfeng Wang, and sincerely thank him for his recognition and valuable suggestions on the revision of this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 82002007, 32270545, 32070508, and 31872258), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education, and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (grant numbers ZR2020QH288).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Medicine, Soochow University, Ganjiang East Road, Suzhou, 215000, China

    Gengwang Hu, Liangliang Li, Yingna Zhang, Shipeng Shao, Yundi Gao, Ruonan Zhang, Yinghui Wang, Yanan Zhang, Yi Guo, Chengtao Kang, Jiangfeng Wang & Yu Wang

  2. Department of Pathology, Shihezi University School of Medicine, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China

    Yingna Zhang

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  1. Gengwang Hu
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  11. Jiangfeng Wang
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  12. Yu Wang
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Gengwang Hu and Yu Wang; Investigation, methodology, and software: Liangliang Li, Shipeng Shao, Yundi Gao, Ruonan Zhang, Yinghui Wang, Yanan Zhang, Yi Guo, Chengtao Kang; Writing—original draft preparation: Gengwang Hu, Yu Wang, Yingna Zhang, and Liangliang Li; writing—review and editing: Yu Wang and Jiangfeng Wang; supervision: Yu Wang and Jiangfeng Wang; funding acquisition: Yu Wang, Jiangfeng Wang, and Liangliang Li. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yu Wang.

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Hu, G., Li, L., Zhang, Y. et al. A global perspective of forensic entomology case reports from 1935 to 2022. Int J Legal Med 137, 1535–1553 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-023-03053-7

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