Wing measurements are a possible tool for the identification of European forensically important Sarcophagidae.

The flesh flies are a group of insects well known for their forensic importance. Reliable identification of these flies relies on the use of either molecular markers or the morphology of the male genital apparatus. Identification of female flesh flies is more time consuming and less reliable than their male counterparts.

Third instar larvae of flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) of forensic importance--critical review of characters and key for European species.

Necrophagous Sarcophagidae are among the insects most frequently reported from human corpses. The broad forensic application of flesh flies is restricted by the lack of reliable tools for species identification of larval stages and mass breeding of collected flesh fly larvae to the adult stage, and more recently DNA-based methods are usually recommended for precise species identification. To overcome this situation, the following study was implemented: (1) original larval material was obtained of the European flesh flies of confirmed or potential forensic importance; (2) larval morphology was studied and documented using a combination of standard light microscopy, image-stacking stereomicroscopy and SEM; and (3) larval characters used in previously published keys were critically revised.

Revision of Taxigramma pseudaperta Séguy, 1941 and comparisons with sympatric T. multipunctata (Rondani, 1859) (Diptera: Sarcophagidae).

The identity of the nominal taxon Taxigramma pseudaperta Séguy, 1941 [type locality: France, Corse] is revised and an improved circumscription based partly on reared material of both sexes is presented through comparison with the very similar and sympatric species T. multipunctata (Rondani, 1859). A table is provided to separate first instars, puparia, males and females of these two taxa.

Identification of forensically important Sarcophaga species (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) using the mitochondrial COI gene.

The identification of species of the forensically important genus Sarcophaga is very difficult and requires strong taxonomic expertise. In this study, we sequenced the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of 126 specimens of 56 W European Sarcophaga species and added GenBank data to our database to yield a total dataset of 270 COI sequences from 99 Sarcophaga species to evaluate the COI gene as a molecular diagnostic tool for species identification in this genus. Using two simple criteria (Best Match, BM and Best Close Match, BCM), we showed that the identification success using a mini-barcode region of 127 bp was very low (80.