Carrion beetles visiting pig carcasses during early spring in urban, forest and agricultural biotopes of Western Europe
1Department of Functional and Evolutionary Entomology, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
2Department of Applied Statistics, Computer Science and Mathematics, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Abstract
Carrion beetles are important in terrestrial ecosystems, consuming dead mammals and promoting the recycling of organic matter into ecosystems. Most forensic studies are focused on succession of Diptera while neglecting Coleoptera. So far, little information is available on carrion beetles postmortem colonization and decomposition process in temperate biogeoclimatic countries. These beetles are however part of the entomofaunal colonization of a dead body. Forensic entomologists need databases concerning the distribution, ecology and phenology of necrophagous insects, including silphids. Forensic entomology uses pig carcasses to surrogate human decomposition and to investigate entomofaunal succession. However, few studies have been conducted in Europe on large carcasses. The work reported here monitored the presence of the carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) on decaying pig carcasses in three selected biotopes (forest, crop field, urban site) at the beginning of spring. Seven species of Silphidae were recorded: Nicrophorus humator (Gleditsch), Nicrophorus vespillo (L.), Nicrophorus vespilloides (Herbst), Necrodes littoralis L., Oiceoptoma thoracica L., Thanatophilus sinuatus (Fabricius), Thanatophilus rugosus (L.). All of these species were caught in the forest biotope, and all but O. thoracica were caught in the agricultural biotope. No silphids were caught in the urban site.
Keywords: Silphidae, carrion ecology, decomposition, forensic entomology, insect succession
Correspondence: a entomologie.gembloux@ulg.ac.be
Editor: Tugrul Giray was Editor of this paper.
Received: 1 June 2010 | Accepted: 11 October 2010 | Published: 29 June 2011
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 11, Number 73
Dekeirsschieter J, Verheggen FJ, Haubruge E, Brostaux Y. 2011. Carrion beetles visiting pig carcasses during early spring in urban, forest and agricultural biotypes of Western Europe. Journal of Insect Science 11:73 available online: insectscience.org/11.73
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