Aggregation in an heterospecific population of blowfly larvae: social behaviour is impacted by species-specific thermal requirements and settlement order.

Larvae of several blowfly species grow on carcasses and actively aggregate together. They face harsh developmental conditions resulting in a strong pressure to reduce development time: this is achieved either through thermoregulation or aggregation. We investigate how these two developmental strategies are modulated within heterospecific groups.

Synomones in necrophagous larvae of the blow flies Lucilia sericata and Calliphora vomitoria.

Chemical signals are widespread in insects, but those resulting in interspecific communication (i.e., synomones) remain understudied.

Experimental Evidence of Bone Lesions Due to Larder Beetle (Coleoptera: Dermestidae).

Dermestid beetles (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) are necrophagous insects feeding on mummified carcasses. After six to seven molts, the larvae stop feeding and dig pupation chambers to hide and safely evolve into adults. Such pupation chambers have already been observed on archaeological mammals' bones, but the attribution and interpretation of these osteological lesions lack experimental evidence in a forensic context.

Insights into the palaeobiology of an early Homo infant: multidisciplinary investigation of the GAR IVE hemi-mandible, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia.

Childhood is an ontogenetic stage unique to the modern human life history pattern. It enables the still dependent infants to achieve an extended rapid brain growth, slow somatic maturation, while benefitting from provisioning, transitional feeding, and protection from other group members. This tipping point in the evolution of human ontogeny likely emerged from early Homo.

Balance between larval and pupal development time in carrion blowflies.

Several studies have highlighted the impact of environmental factors such as food type or larval density on the development of blowfly larvae. We investigated how changes in development speed (due to larval density and group composition) are divided among feeding and post-feeding stages. Even if these parameters impinge only on feeding larvae, they may ultimately also affect their subsequent development, and especially metamorphosis duration.