FRSC 1011H Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Phormia Regina, Putrefaction, Common Green Bottle Fly
7 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Entomology
Identifying time and place of
● Ecology of Corpses
○ A corpse is a high nutritional package that is suddenly released into the
environment, time and placement is random
● Major problem: availability of food is unpredictable: feast or famine
Theoretical outline of the process
● Timeline
○ Death
○ Stages of putrefaction
○ Stages of mummification
● Actual process: not clear demarcations, but distributions
Main early colonizers
● Phormia regina
● Pollenia sp
● Callipohor vionia
● Calliphora vomitoria
● Lucilia illustris
● Lucilia sericata
Fresh fly emerging from pupa
● Adult flies emerge by breaking open pupae with a specialized temporary
structure called a ptilinum, swelling on head breaks pupal case, fly emerges,
ptilinum shrinks, fly exoskelton hardens.
