Jared Paquin Forensics entomology reflection

Period 3 of the advanced forensics class set up a lab to study decomposition and entomology. We started to set up around September 8th, we used a pig shoulder, a cage, rocks, and steaks,and lastly some zip ties. We put the freshly unwrapped pig shoulder into the cage to prevent any animal interfering. As soon as the pork shoulder was in the cage some flies were already coming to it.

During the past few days after that you couldn't tell anything was happening. However, on September 10 you could start to see some of the bug activity really take control of this shoulder. The wounds we had inflicted on the pork shoulder housed wasps and flies. The wasps were eating at the tissue, and maggots were starting to emerge out of eggs hungry for the flesh of this shoulder. The skin was tough and leathery and maggot masses were appearing inside the wounds as well as inside the pork. On or around September 17th is where you could see the damage being done. The maggots were in 3rd instar and were in masses deep inside the carcase. The meat was a black green color and the smell was horrific. There was a slimy foam from where the maggots release enzymes to break down the pork so they can eat it.

Now since we had all of our observations done it was time to collect our data or put it all on one table. We were determining PMI (Postmortem Interval) we took the data we gathered and used the weather channel to get the most accurate weather forecast we could for the weeks the shoulder had been there. The temperature can greatly affect the development of the fly larvae. If the temperature is hot the process of instars and pupation to an adult fly is accelerated. While in the cold the process is slowed down. The results  that have concluded the lab from my findings are consistent with what was actually supposed to happen.

This lab has beneficial to the students and the studying of entomology because it gave us a hands on look about the predictable bottlefly life cycle. Also helps us with recording observations and taking data from a situation. To close, the lab gave us a hands on look on what entomology is like and what we have to do to calculate PMI.