Necrophagous insect species succession on decomposed pig carcasses in North Dakota, USA.

Necrophagous insect species are widely used during death investigations primarily for the estimation of the minimum postmortem interval, since these species use decomposing organic matter for feeding, oviposition, and larval development. The development stages and successional colonization patterns provide important information for shorter or longer postmortem time intervals. Diptera species are the predominant taxa recovered from decomposed bodies.