Biological aspects and molecular identification of forensically relevant blow flies under seasonal temperature and humidity variations in Egypt

Abstract

Abstract Background Blow flies play a crucial role in determining the minimum postmortem interval (PMImin) due to their prolific breeding on carrion. This study focuses on three important medical and forensically species investigating how fluctuating temperatures affect their biology and confirming their identification through mitochondrial DNA analysis. Results The different biological aspects of the three studied species Lucilia sericata, Chrysomya albiceps, and Chrysomya megacephala were temperature dependent. The highest number of emerging adults, number of eggs laid per female and egg hatchability were in summer, followed by spring, autumn and winter. Preoviposition period, incubation period, maggot duration and pupal duration were inversely proportional with temperature. Adult females lived longer than males during the four seasons. The longest longevity of male and female of L. sericata was in spring. Male and female C. megacephala and C. albiceps had the longest life span in winter. Phylogenetic analysis revealed 97, 99 and 99% similarity between L. sericata, C. megacephala and C. albiceps compared to their reference species. Conclusions Seasonal temperature variations significantly impact developmental rates of blow flies causing deviation in PMImin estimation if these biological data were to be used. The findings highlight the importance of integrating temperature effects and molecular data for more accurate investigation and identification. Graphical abstract

Keywords

• Biology
• Blow flies
• Fluctuating temperature
• Egypt
• COI gene
• mt DNA