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A brief history of forensic entomology

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 Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14

A brief history of forensic entomology

Mark Benecke*
International Forensic Research & Consulting, Postfach 250411, 50520 Cologne, Germany

Abstract

Apart from an early case report from China (13th century) and later artistic contributions, the ®rst observations on insects
and other arthropods as forensic indicators were documented in Germany and France during mass exhumations in the late
1880s by Reinhard and Hofmann, whom we propose recognizing as co-founders of the discipline. After the French publication
of MeÂgnin's popular book on the applied aspects of forensic entomology, the concept quickly spread to Canada and the US. At
the time, researchers recognized that the lack of systematic observations of forensically important insects stood in the way of
their use as indicators of postmortem interval. General advances in insect taxonomy, and ecology helped close this gap over
the following decades.
Many early case reports dealt with alleged child homicides, including the suspected use of sulphuric acid. In this context, it
was shown that ants, cockroaches, and freshwater arthropods could produce postmortem artifacts suggestive of child abuse.
After the World Wars, few forensic entomology cases entered the scienti®c literature. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Leclecq
and Nuorteva were primarily responsible for maintaining the method in Central Europe, with a focus on case work. Since then,
basic research in the US, Russia and Canada has opened the way to the routine use of entomology in forensic investigations.
The following article gives a brief overview of historic developments in the ®eld. A major focus is on the work done between
1850 and 1950. Since sources from that time remain dif®cult to track down, the article also includes a historic bibliographical
overview on forensic entomology of that era. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Forensic entomology; Diptera; Coleoptera; Maggots; History of medicine and natural sciences

1. Introduction state of the art. An attached bibliography1 both documents

the earliest efforts made in the ®eld and facilitates access to
Hundreds of arthropod species are attracted by corpses, early studies, research results, and case reports.
primarily ¯ies (Diptera), beetles (Coleoptera), and their
larvae, and also mites, isopods, opiliones, and nematodes.
These animals feed, live, or breed in and on the corpse, 2. Medieval China to 19th century
depending on their biological preferences and on the state of
decompostion (e.g. [1,24,38,43,46,59,69,63,74,82,103]). The ®rst documented forensic entomology case is
Since arthropods are by far the largest and most important reported by the Chinese lawyer and death investigator Sung
biological group on Earth (they outnumber even plants), they TzÂu in the 13th century in the medico-legal text book Hsi
can be found in a wide variety of locations including crime yuÈan chi lu (one possible translation: ``The Washing Away
scenes. This opens a wide range of applications for forensic of Wrongs'') [97,98]. He describes the case of a stabbing
entomology, the investigation of insects and other arthropods near a rice ®eld. The day after the murder, the investigator
recovered from crime scenes and corpses. told all workers to lay down their working tools (sickles) on
The following article gives a brief review of the historic the ¯oor. Invisible traces of blood drew blow ¯ies to a single
sources describing the development that led to the present sickle. So confronted, the tool's owner confessed to his

1
Historic references until 1945 only. A searchable, extended
*
Tel.: 49-173-287-3136; fax: 49-221-660-2644. version of the bibliographic data given in this article is available at
E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Benecke). http://www.benecke.com/fespecial.html.

0379-0738/01/$ ± see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 7 9 - 0 7 3 8 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 4 0 9 - 1
 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14 3

biologist Carl von Linne made the statement that three ¯ies
would destroy a horse as fast as a lion would (in the sense of
them producing large masses of maggots) [75].

3. Early cases from France

During mass exhumations in France and Germany in the

18th and 19th centuries, medico-legal doctors observed that
buried bodies are inhabited by arthropods of many kinds. In
1831, the famous French medical doctor Or®la observed a
large number of exhumations [79,80]. He understood that
maggots play an important role in the decomposition of
corpses (Fig. 4).
The ®rst modern forensic entomology case report to
include an estimation of postmortem interval (PMI) was
given by the French doctor Bergeret in 1855 [12]. The case
dealt with blow ¯y pupae and larval moths. Though Bergeret
was by profession a hospital physician (at the Hopital Civil
d'Arbois), his interest in cadaver study is clear, as he states
that a corpse dealt with by him resembled those he had
observed found in other locations (i.e. ``in the hot and dry
lands (``pays chauds'') on the cemetery of the Capucins of
Palerme'', or ``in Toulouse''). His original report to the court
was dated 28 March 1850. In his journal article, next to a
long description of the criminalistic impact in the trial, he
also describes the court proceedings: ``Within three years,
four different tenants [i.e. families, M.B.] lived in the ¯at.
The ®rst of them left in December 1848, and the person
Fig. 1. Chapter 5 of Sung Tzu's Chinese book on Forensic
examined started to live there at the end of 1844. I [i.e.
Medicine deals with a case of stabbing solved by use of insects:
adult ¯ies detected blood on the killer's sickle (from [10]). Bergeret] was brought to the house of Mme. Saillard [i.e. the
landlady] in rue du Citoyen, 4, (. . .) to examine the corpse of
a child. (. . .) Length of corpse: [46 cm] [then details on
crime and ``knocked his head on the ¯oor'' (Fig. 1). Leclercq measurements of bones, state of internal organs, etc. follow].
and Lambert re-enforced the observed preference of certain The questions we had to deal with now were: (1) was the
blow ¯ies for blood in 1976: they found Calliphora vomi- child born regularly/at the right time; (2) was it alive when it
toria on a corpse, 6 h after postmortem, laying eggs into was born; (3) how long did it live; (4) how did it die?; (5)
blood (but not on the wounds) of the deceased. what was the time interval between birth and death?''
In addition to medical and legal experts, sculptors, pain- Questions 1±4 were answered with classical forensic pathol-
ters, and poets have closely observed the decomposition of ogy. Question 5 was commented in the following way: ``To
human bodies, noting, in particular, the effects of feeding answer this question, legal medicine must check with
maggots. Early documents illustrating maggots on corpses another science, the Natural Sciences.'' However, Bergeret
date to the Middle Ages, including woodcuts from the does not state whether he worked together with another
``Dances of the Death'' (15th century, Fig. 2), and the person.
intricately cut ivory carving, ``Skeleton in the Tumba'' In his paper, Bergeret gives a brief overview on the life
(16th century, Fig. 3, [11]). Such artwork accurately depicts cycle of insects in general. He mistakenly assumes, however,
the insect-mediated pattern of body mass reduction, parti- that metamorphosis would generally require a full year
cularly the early skeletonization of the skull and the reduc- (``une annee entiere''). Furthermore, he assumes that
tion of internal organs, with large parts of the skin left intact females generally lay eggs in summer, and that the larvae
(Figs. 2 and 3). The poem ``Une Charogne'' by the French would transform to pupae (he calls them nymphes) the
poet Charles Baudelaire (1821±1867) must be mentioned in following spring and hatch in summer. Some details of
this context too, since it contains clear observations on the Bergeret's calculation: ``The eggs of the larvae we found
decay of human bodies, including an accurate reference to on the corpse in March 1850 must have been deposited there
the sound of maggot masses on corpses: ``Like water and the in the middle of 1849. Therefore, the corpse must have been
wind running/Or corn that a winnower in rhythmic motion/ deposited before this time interval. Next to the many living
Fans with ®ery cunning'' [9]. A century earlier, in 1767, the larvea there were numerous pupae present, and they must
4 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14

Fig. 2. Close observation of decomposition of human corpses built the basis for these ®gures: (left) ``Dance of the Death'' (ca. 1460, from: W.
Stammler: Der Totentanz, Munich, 1948); (right) grave of Robert Touse who ``expects the resurrection of the dead'' (exact time of making
unknown, from [11,54]). Note that maggots are displayed similar to snakes, or worms (on the left picture), and that all heads of the corpses are
already skeletonized.

come from eggs that have been laid earlier, i.e. in 1848. (. . .) and legal medicine. His numerous medico-legal accounts
Could it be that the corpse was deposited even before that include practical guidelines for his colleagues in the morgue.
time [i.e. 1848]? The ¯y that emerges from the pupae that we A contemporary said that ``his work is conscientious, clear,
found in the body cavities, is Musca carnaria L. that lays its methodical, and serves as a model.''
eggs before the body dries out. We found other pupae of little In his report, after referencing the work of Bergeret,
butter¯ies of the night [i.e., moth] too, that attack bodies that Brouardel describes the case of a newborn child that was
are already dried out. If the body was deposited, say in 1846 autopsied by him on 15 January 1878 [15]. The mummi®ed
or 1847, we would not have found those larvae [i.e., since body was inhabited by several arthropods, including butter-
they would have hatched]. In conclusion, two generations of ¯y larvae and acari (i.e. mites), which led to a request for
insects were found on the corpse, representing 2 years assistance from Monsieur Perier, Professor at the Museum of
postmortem: on the fresh corpse, the ¯esh ¯y deposited Natural History in Paris, and Army Veterinarian Pierre
its eggs in 1848, on the dried out corpse, the moth laid their MeÂgnin. Perier reported that the body was most likely dried
eggs in 1849''. out before it was abandoned. The determination of mites was
In retrospect, one should understand that Bergeret did not left to MeÂgnin whereas Perier determined the butter¯y larvae
focus on forensic entomology in his report to the court but as ``chenilles d'aglosses'', i.e. larvae from the genus Aglossa
used entomology as one forensic tool among others. Indeed, (small moth, family Pyralidae). From the state of preserva-
the mummi®cation of the cadaver appears to be his over- tion, and from the larvae found, Perier stated that the baby
riding issue of interest in this case. Bergeret references Or®la may have been born and died the summer before (``de l'eÂte
in the matters of both mummi®cation and forensic entomol- dernier probablement''), i.e. around 6±7 months before the
ogy. He also clearly notes the lack of knowledge concerning corpse was autopsied.
insect succession on corpses in his days. MeÂgnin reported that the whole body was covered with a
In 1879, the president of the French Society of Forensic brownish layer composed exclusively of mite skins and mite
Medicine, Brouardel reported another early case [15]. Paul feces, but not living mites. Inside the cranium, he found large
Camille Hippolyte Brouardel, born in Saint-Quentin on 13 numbers of a single mite species. Initially, a few larval mites
February 1837, became a member of the French Academy of must have been carried to the corpse by other arthropods.
Medicine in 1880. He worked on tuberculosis, vaccination, MeÂgnin calculated that on the whole body, 2.4 million acari
 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14 5

[85]. Dealing with exhumated bodies from Saxonia, he

collected mainly Phorid ¯ies taxonomically identi®ed by
the entomologist Brauer in Vienna. He also described beetles
in graves older than 15 years. In some instances, he found the
insects breeding within cracks of adipocire. But Reinhard
concluded that their presence may have more to do with their
feeding on plant roots protruding into the graves rather than
any direct association with the corpses. Reinhard's work
remained well known for a long time, and in 1928 an
extensive citation of his paper appeared in the work of
the Phorid ¯y expert, Schmitz [88] and elsewhere [3,49].
Another entomological report of exhumations, this time
from Franconia, was given by Hofmann in 1886 [41].
Hofmann found Phorids too, and identi®ed them as Con-
icera tibialis Schmitz, today known as the ``cof®n ¯y''.2
Around the same time, the 60-year-old doctor Jean Pierre
MeÂgnin started to develop his theory of predictable, ecolo-
gical waves of insect life on corpses. MeÂgnin, born in
Herimoncourt (Doubs) on 18 January 1928, went to school
at the Ecole d'Alfort from 1849 until his graduation in 1853.
In 1855, he became an Army Veterinarian. His books include
``Maladies de la Peau des Animaux'' (Animal Skin Diseases,
1867±1882), and ``Maladies parasitaires'' (Diseases caused
by Parasites, 1880). MeÂgnin likewise worked on Acari
(publications in this matter date between 1876 and 1879),
and reported some of his results in his book ``Faune des
Tombeaux'' (Fauna of the Tombs, 1887) [60]. No af®liation
to a university or a Museum of Natural History was men-
tioned in his articles, and because he became a member of
the French Academy of Medicine in 1893, one might
conclude that he considered himself primarily a medical
Fig. 3. Early account of insects on corpses that were already
determined to the species. From Or®la's & Lesueur's Handbook for doctor.
the use at exhumations [79]. MeÂgnin drew on his 15 years of medico-legal experience
with corpses in publishing 14, mostly brief, papers between
were present dead or alive. He also calculated that after 15 1883 and 1896 (e.g. [2,61,64]). He found fault in the
days, the ®rst generation with 10 females and ®ve males had dissertation of his younger French colleague George P.
developed; after 30 days, 100 females and 50 males; after 45 Yovanovitch, of the Faculty of Medicine, Paris, on the same
days, 1000 females and 500 males. Finally, after 90 days, 1 subject (1888, [113]). MeÂgnin was under the impression that
million females and 500,000 males were present. Since this Yovanovitch's data were not suf®ciently precise [62]. Pre-
was the number of individual he estimated being on the viously, the two researchers had co-operated in the sense that
corpse, he made a conservative guess and reported that the Yovanovitch was allowed to use MeÂgnin's data, including
corpse must have been abandoned for at least 5 months (3 tables of mites and the successional table of ®ve cadaverous
months of mite development, preceded by 2 months for fauna waves that Yvanovitch titled Toilers on the Dead
desiccation) but more likely 7±8 months. This is the same (``Les Travailleurs de la Mort'', obviously being a pun
case as Case no. 12 in MeÂgnins ``La faune de cadavres'' (see related to the book Toilers of the Sea (``Les Travailleurs
below), and MeÂgnin states that this is his ``preÂmiere eÂtude de la Mer'' by French author Victor Hugo, 1866)).
meÂdico-leÂgale'' (®rst medico-legal study) [63]. Finally, in 1894, MeÂgnin published his most important
This case also illustrates nicely how early researchers in book La Faune des Cadavres (Figs. 5 and 6). In it, he
the ®eld investigated the use of molds, slime fungi, crusta- expanded his former theory of four insect waves for freely
ceans, mites, and plants in addition to insects. exposed corpses to eight successional waves. For buried
corpses, he reported two waves. The book dealt with larval
and adult forms of a number of families, and its drawings
4. Further mass exhumations focused on wing venation, posterior spiracles, and overall

On 6 April 1881, the German medical doctor Reinhard 2

The Phorid fly collection of Schmitz is now at the Museum
reported the ®rst systematic study in forensic entomology Alexander KoÈnig in Bonn, Germany.
6 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14

Fig. 4. (Top) Typical pattern of decay caused by maggots (head is left, rib case if partially skeletonized); (bottom) realistic artistic
representation of the same postmortem decay as above (ivory ``Skeleton in the Tumba'', 16th century, SchnuÈtgen Museum, Cologne,
Germany).

anatomy of the insects for identi®cation. MeÂgnin also graves and the general fauna and ¯ora of mummi®ed, or
described 19 case reports, including his own cases between otherwise decayed, corpses was later honored in the naming
1879 and 1888 (some of the cases were in co-operation with of the mold Endoconidium megnini [45].
Brouardel). He cites his original statements given in court as In 1895, inspired by MeÂgnin, the Canadian researchers
well as the basic questions asked of him as an expert witness. Wyatt Johnston and Geoffrey Villeneuve, of Montreal,
In addition to advancing the science of forensic entomol- started a number of systematic entomological studies on
ogy, MeÂgnin's work greatly popularized the subject. His human corpses [48]. The two scientists write of MeÂgnin:
contributions to our knowledge of the arthropod fauna of ``(. . .) in no single instance did the results of the inquiry go to
 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14 7

Fig. 5. Figures of ¯ies from MeÂgnin's faune de cadavres [63]: (top) ``Pyophila petasionis Duf.'', middle: ``Sarcophage carnaria Meig.'';
(bottom) ``Lucilia Caesar Rob. D.''

show that M. MeÂgnin's deductions were erroneous. (. . .) The inapplicable.'' They aimed to re®ne the work of MeÂgnin, and
chief danger to be feared from MeÂgnins imitators is that they to adapt it to their local faunas.
might tend to indulge in guesses having no very solid basis Another study on this subject had already been set up by
and to apply rules to countries and climates where they were Murray Galt Motter, ``Volunteer in the United States Bureau

Fig. 6. Figures of beetles from MeÂgnin's Faune de cadavres [63]. From left to right: ``Silpha obscura'' (adult and larva), ``Saprinus
rotondatus'' (adult and larva), ``Hister cadaverinus'' (adult), and ``Tenebrio obscurens'' (adult and larva).
8 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14

for Animal Industry'', and his co-workers a few years obvious signs of cockroach feeding were apparent immedi-
previous. Shortly after, in the summers of 1896 and 1897, ately after the feeding activity, they became visible when the
Motter's group systematically and critically checked more skin dried, explaining why the mother had not seen the
than 150 exhumed corpses from Washington, DC [74]. In his abrasions but the medical examiners had.
report, Motter provides brief descriptions of the entomolo- Similar cases were reported by medical examiner
gical ®ndings as well as brief comments on soil type, grave Maschka from Austria who became involved in high pro®le
depth, etc. A speech that he ``read before the public section cases in the modern sense of the phrase. In one case, he
of the British Medical Association'' in 1897 carried the title found abrasions on a child whose body was discovered in a
``Underground Zoology and Legal Medicine'' [73]. well. It was believed that a sexual offender may have abused
Another report in 1895 came from Sweden where the child and then strangled, or throttled it before throwing it
SchoÈyen gave an overview of work that could be applied in the well. Maschka, however, concluded that the lesions
to the investigation of ``gravenes fauna'', or the fauna of must have been caused by arthropods. In another case, it was
graves [89]. However, he refers primarily to species already thought that a father may have killed his 3-day-old child by
mentioned in Reinhard's and MeÂgnin's publications. forcing it to drink sulphuric acid. The father, however, stated
The only forensic entomology studies of that time no that he had put the child, after it had died of natural causes,
longer available are those performed by Hough in New near the window at 22.00 h on 14 April 1880. He reported
Bedford from 1894 to 1897, as he never published his data. that on 04.00 h the next day, the child's head, located under a
blanket, was already covered with ants. Maschka's ®ndings
at autopsy were consistent with the father's account.
5. Turn of the century Another experimental account was given by Eduard
Ritter von Niezabitowski, also a medical examiner at the
Previous forensic insect studies by the German doctors Medico-Legal Insitute of Krakau University. His experi-
KlingelhoÈffer [51] and Maschka [58], and the forensic ments were performed from May 1899 to September 1900,
pathologist Stefan von Horoskiewicz from Krakau Univer- using aborted fetuses and cat, fox, rat, mole, and calf
sity (then Austria, now Poland) [44], had focused on the bite cadavers that he put on the windowsill of the institute as
patterns of cockroaches and ants. KlingelhoÈffer, a district well as in a nearby vegetable garden [76]. His observations
medical doctor responsible for the Frankfurt area, relates the dealt primarily with ¯ies: Calliphorids, Lucilia caesar,
case of a poor family whose 9-month-old sickly baby died on Sarcophaga carnaria, and ``Pyophila nigriceps'' (most
26 May 1889, and was autopsied 3 days later, on 29 May. In likely, cheese skippers (Piophila casei)); and also beetles,
the meantime, the local ``doctor responsible for the poor'' mostly Silpha, Necrophorus, or Dermestes. His important
had ®led a report to the police because he had observed contribution to the ®eld was the experimental proof that
patches in the face of the child, leading to the father's arrest. human corpses share the same fauna with animal corpses,
During the resulting autopsy, the ``patches'' were noted on both vertebrate and invertebrate.
the nose and lips and to proceed downwards from the child's Meanwhile, turn-of-the-century France and Germany
mouth. The tongue was not discolored, but bleeding on the enjoyed a general increase in interest in zoological studies
tip. Of particular interest to the police was con®rmation of including invertebrate life. As evidence, we see the great
their suspicions that the father had tried to make the child success of two popular book series from that time, Alfred
drink sulphuric acid, a common method of poisoning (also Brehm's Thierleben (Life of The Animals) [99], and even
self poisoning) at that time. However, KlingelhoÈffer found more Jean Henri Fabre's Souvenirs entomologiques (Sou-
no signs of poisoning, and concluded that the abrasion-like venirs of Insect Life) [29], among other topics speci®cally
patterns had most likely been caused by cockroaches. The dealing with carrion beetles and blow ¯ies. These books, still
father was released after 3 weeks in prison (see also [87]). well-known to the public in Central Europe, inspired an
Horoszkiewicz dealt with a similar case, in which a child interest in entomology in large numbers of people. Among
was autopsied in April 1899. The autopsy found no internal the lasting bene®ts of this popularity are numerous ecolo-
signs of violent death, however, numerous abrasions could gical studies that continue to be drawn upon in forensic case
be seen on the nose, cheeks, lips, and chin, with more studies today.
obvious marks on the surface of the neck and backside of In 1907, Claude Morley published an article in UK
the left hand, ®ngers, genitals, and the inner thighs. When dealing with the question of which species should be clas-
questioned by Horoszkiewicz, the mother stated that when si®ed as carrion beetles [72]. He stated that during 10 years
she came home from preparing for the funeral, the body of of collecting he found that winter was ``almost the best
her child had looked as if it was covered with a black shroud time'' for carrion beetles and that there are (so-called)
(``mit einem schwarzen Leichentuche bedeckt'') of cock- carrion beetles that are not carnivorous but ``act as ®nal
roaches, but she did not see any abrasions at that time. To dissoluters to the ancient carcase (. . .). It is still a mystery to
verify whether the cockroaches could be the sole cause for me what N[ecrophorus] vespillo feeds upon.'' Papers like
the abrasions, Horoszkiewicz put pieces of fresh tissue from this were the early basis for the systematic ecological studies
human corpses in glasses ®lled with cockroaches. While no that have in¯uenced forensic entomology since the 1920s.
 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14 9

6. Circa the World Wars The interest in maggots on corpses remained high in
1922, when Karl Meixner, professor at the Insitute for Legal
Beginning in the 1920s, species lists and monographs on Medicine in Vienna and Innsbruck reported cases of bodies
forensically important insects were ®nally published (e.g. that quickly disintegrated while being put into storage in the
[38,53,84,91]), with a focus on ecology, metabolism or institute's basement [65]. This rapid disintegration was most
anatomy, e.g. [8,14,19,20,22±25,27,31±34,39,40,46,50,52, dramatic with juvenile corpses. Apart from references to
57,66±68,70±72,81,83,84,93,94,100±102,104±108,111,112]; Or®la and Lesueur [79] and MeÂgnin [60±64], no further data
see also [6,26]. Pest control, and ``maggot therapy'' were was collected by Meixner.
both of growing interest during this period, and many con- A few years later, Hermann Merkel, professor at the
tributions stemmed from these ®elds (e.g. [5,7,35,36,37, Insitute for Legal Medicine in Munich, extended Meixners
42,47,53,82,86,95,96,109,110]), creating a major scienti®c observations with case reports that demonstrated that the
source for interpretation of forensic insect evidence. In the circumstances of death could in¯uence the course of insect
context of pest control, for instance, it was found that adult succession. In a case from summer 1919, a son had killed his
¯ies may be present near dying persons or animals before parents and stored the bodies next to each other for 3 weeks.
their actual death [21]. It also became popular to investigate At autopsy, the bodies were found to be in different states of
the entomological status of ancient mummies [28]. decomposition: the obese body of the mother (shot in the

Fig. 7. In¯uence of caddis-¯ies on a child's body; case investigated by Holzer (from [43]).
10 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14

heart) was in full bloated decay, with both eyeballs destroyed bones that allow blood vessels, and nerves to enter the bones
by the actions of maggots and numerous maggots already [103].
present inside of the (liquifying) brain tissue. Her internal
organs were comparably intact and no maggots were present
inside of the fat layers. By contrast, the father's slim body 7. After the World Wars
had already been infested with numerous maggots in all
cavities, with all internal organs destroyed, and pupae During the 1940s, only a note of Bequaert seems to deal
already developed. The reason for the increased maggot with the use of insects to determine the postmortem interval
presence in the father's body was that he had not only been [4], but see also [30]. In the 1950s, Hubert Caspers from the
shot but also repeatedly stabbed. This attracted ¯ies to Zoological Institute and Museum of the State Hamburg
deposit eggs not only in the facial area but also into the introduced the use of caddis-¯y casings as a tool for forensic
wounds [69]. In another case, Merkel found the mummi®ed investigation (Fig. 8). The body of a dead woman, naked
body of a person who died at home, with not one single except of a pair of red socks, and wrapped in a sack, had been
maggot being present. found in 1948 in a moat of a windmill [16]. The question was
In Italy, G. Bianchini, director of the Institute for Legal if the body was disposed there immediately after the killing,
Medicine of Bari University, wrote a ``contribution to the or if it was stored elsewhere before it was dumped. In a
practical, and experimental study of the fauna of corpses'' in caddis-¯y casing (most likely of Limnophilus ¯avicornis L.)
1929 [13]. Bianchini's case report deals with the corpse of a that was found on one sock, ®bers of the red socks had
4-year-old child that had dried-out lesions of the skin on the clearly been used to build the casing. However, the ®bers
ears, arms, the abdominal area, and the upper side of the
thighs. Arthropods collected from the body included mites,
``very small scorpions'', small beetles, and ants. Identi®ca-
tion of the ants was performed by professor Carlo Minozzi,
and after further experimentation, Bianchini concluded that
the lesions must have been caused by ants of the same
species as found on the corpse within a period of around
24 h. A former case report of Raimoni and Rossi (1888; cited
after [13]) dealt with the in¯uence of Gammarus pulex, a
freshwater crustacean, on corpses. The authors found that
Gammarus can produce large numbers of small needle-like
lesions. In their case report, it was concluded that a body had
been stored in a freshwater containment.
The only case report during the 1930s seems to come
from Josef Holzer, medical examiner at the Institute for
Legal Medicine in Innsbruck, Austria. Holzer investigated
the type of destruction caused by caddis-¯ies feeding on
corpses submerged in freshwater. In an actual case from
April 1937, he found that caddis-¯ies had destroyed all skin
layers of the thighs up to the lower border of a pair of shorts
as well as larger parts of the facial skin (Fig. 7). It was
late winter/early spring with low temperatures, and there
had clearly been no blow-¯y maggots present. Holzer had
never observed such patterns of destruction, even in cases
where caddis-¯y casings had actually been present on
corpses. Therefore, he collected caddis-¯ies from the body
of water in which the corpse had been found and put them in
three aquariums containing an aborted fetus, a rat, and a
guinea pig, respectively. In doing so, he demonstrated that
caddis-¯ies were the cause of the lesions observed on the
child [43].
K. Walcher from the Insitute for Legal Medicine in
Munich also reports that he found maggots entering the
spongiosa of long bones to reach the bone marrow (circum- Fig. 8. ``A caddis-¯y casing as a tool in criminalistics.'' The casing
stances: suicide, postmortem interval 100 days outside). was not only used to suggest a possible postmortem interval but
Since the skeleton was intact, Walcher suggested that the due to the ®bers it was built of, it could also be connected to the
animals crept through Foramina nutritia, tiny gaps in the socks of a dead woman (from [16]).
 M. Benecke / Forensic Science International 120 (2001) 2±14 11

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