Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) development by landmark-based geometric morphometrics of cephalopharyngeal skeleton: a preliminary assessment for forensic entomology application

• Published in: Egyptian journal of forensic sciences 2019-10, Vol.9 (1), p.1-9, Article 55
• Main Authors: Sim, Li-Xuan, Zuha, Raja M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allometry; Centroid size; Development; Entomology; Forensic entomology; Forensic Medicine; Forensic sciences; Geometric morphometrics; Hominids; Insects; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; MorphoJ; Pathology; Short Report
• ISSN: 2090-5939; 2090-536X; 2090-5939
• DOI: 10.1186/s41935-019-0158-y

Background Considering the practicality of geometric morphometrics which could discriminate insect species, this application was extended to the analysis of blow fly larval growth based on cephalopharyngeal skeleton. In forensic entomology, cephalopharyngeal skeleton plays a crucial role in species identification but the morphometric information of this part is scarce. In this study, Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) was reared in two study replicates in natural conditions and samplings were conducted at fixed daily intervals. Cephalopharyngeal skeletons were removed from larvae and mounted on glass slides. Images were obtained from the specimens; digitized and geometric morphometric analysis on C. megacephala cephalopharyngeal skeletons was performed with MorphoJ software based on the ordination of five landmarks. The assessments of this analysis were based on centroid size measurements, visualization on the landmarks displacements, classification of the relative landmarks by using canonical variate analysis, and ontogenetic allometry determination. Findings Centroid size was strongly correlated with developmental time ( p