Spatial distribution and habitat preference of sarcosaprophagus Calliphoridae (Diptera) in the Brazilian Northeast, with notes on the utilization of different animal baits.

Brazil is a country with one of the greatest biodiversities in the world, in addition to the high diversity of biomes that directly influences the composition of fauna and flora. In this context, the analysis of the potential distribution of calliphorids in the Northeast can generate important information for forensic entomology and conservation biology. This study aims to identify the current and potential distribution of the main species of flies from the family Calliphoridae of forensic interest in the Northeast region of Brazil. For this purpose, field and bibliographic data were collected and analyzed. The obtained data were used to develop ecological models based on the MaxEnt model. The analyses showed that the exotic species Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann, 1819) and Chrysomyia megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) are the most common species in Northeast environments, presenting a wide spatial distribution. On the other hand, native taxa have a more restricted distribution, except for the species Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775). The variables that most influenced the models were precipitation and wind. The ecological models presented in this study demonstrate an overlap in the distribution of exotic and native species, which may pose a risk of competition and future homogenization of assemblies.