Molecular identification of blowflies of forensic importance and thermal effects on their behaviour: tools to enhance forensic entomology in Australia

在可疑的死亡中，尸体在死后三天或更长时间被发现，腐肉繁殖的苍蝇提供了死亡估计的时间。由于(a)无法在形态学上充分区分未成熟物种，以及(b)关于不同物种对温度的生物学反应的信息不足，这些估计目前进展缓慢且相对宽泛。我们将开发快速分子分析来区分苍蝇种类，并全面绘制温度对最重要的法医苍蝇的行为影响图。分子和成虫形态数据也将被用来研究食腐苍蝇的进化。

In suspicious deaths in which a body is found three or more days post-mortem, carrion-breeding blowflies provide time since death estimates. These estimates are currently slow and relatively broad due to (a) an inability to adequately distinguish immatures morphologically, and (b) insufficient information on the biological responses of different species to temperature. We will develop rapid molecular assays to distinguish blowfly species, and comprehensively chart the behavioural effects of temperature on the most forensically important blowflies. Molecular and adult morphological data will also be used to examine the evolution of the carrion-breeding blowflies.