History of Forensic Entomology

History of Forensic Entomology

Ancient Origins (13th Century)

• The earliest recorded case of forensic entomology dates to 1247 AD in China.

• The case was documented in the book The Washing Away of Wrongs (Hsi Yu Èan chi lu) written by Sung T’zu.

• In a murder investigation, flies were attracted to invisible blood traces on a sickle, revealing the true weapon.

Francesco Redi (1626–1697)

• Before 1668, most scientists believed in spontaneous generation, the idea that living organisms (like maggots) arise spontaneously from non-living matter (like rotting meat).

• Redi experimentally disproved spontaneous generation (at least for insects).

• This experiment changed biological thinking across Europe.

ORFILA & LESUEUR

• During mass exhumations in France and Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries, medico-legal doctors observed that buried bodies are colonized by arthropods of many kinds.

• In 1831, the famous French medical doctors ORFILA & LESUEUR (1831, 1835) observed a large number of exhumations.

• They understood that maggots play an important role in the decomposition of corpses.

Role of Doctor Bergeret

• The first modern forensic entomology case report to include an estimation of postmortem interval (PMI) was given by the French doctor Bergeret in 1850.

• In that report, it was written that the mummified child was found behind a chimney during house renovation.

• The insects found on that mummified corpse were admitted as evidence that the current occupants were not the culprits, and they were acquitted.

• In his paper BERGERET (1855) gives a brief overview of the life cycle of insects in general.

J.P. Mégnin and Perier

• In 1879, the president of the French Society of Forensic Medicine, Brouardel, reported another early case.

• In his report, after referencing the work of Bergeret, Brouardel described the case of a newborn child autopsied on January 15, 1878.

• The mummified body was inhabited by several arthropods, including butterfly larvae and mites.

• Assistance was requested from Monsieur Perier, professor at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and army veterinarian J.P. Mégnin (Jean Pierre).

• Perier determined the butterfly larvae as “chenilles d’aglosses”, meaning larvae from the genus Aglossa (small moth, family Pyralidae).

• From the state of preservation and larvae found, Perier suggested that the baby may have been born and died the previous summer, around six to seven months before the autopsy.

• Mégnin (1894) reported that the whole body was covered with a brownish layer composed exclusively of mite skins and mite feces, but not living mites.

• Mégnin concluded that the corpse must have been abandoned for at least five months (three months of mite development preceded by two months for desiccation), but more likely seven to eight months.

Eight Successive Waves of Insects -

• In 1894, Mégnin proposed that a dead body is colonized by insects in eight successive and predictable waves.

• Each wave corresponds to a specific stage of decomposition.

History of Forensic Entomology