Authors
Falak Khan, Afrozulla Khan Z
Abstract
Forensic entomology is the utilization of insects in lawful issues and gets information about where, when, and the way crime was committed based on their distribution, ecology, biology, and conduct of insects present at the crime scene. Entomotoxicology is the assessment of poisons in arthropods that prey on the corpse. Forensic Entomotoxicology examines the assessment of insects as toxicological samples since they are being used for the poisonous content in them. The utilization of insects as an alternative matrix for drug identification is well-reported and suggested without conventional matrices for example urine, blood, or internal organs. Hence, drugs present in a decomposing body might be recognized through the investigation of maggots feeding off it. In this paper, the results for the practice of Entomotoxicology as a forensic technique are discussed in-depth and the function of insects as a toxicological sample, its collection, and preservation, examination utilizing different instrumental procedures, is being stated for the forensic considerations. Keywords: Entomotoxicology, Forensic Entomology, Toxins, Corpse, Insects, Investigation.
Introduction
Entomology springs from the Greek word Entomon (insect) and Logos (word, reason) meaning the study of insects. Forensic Entomology, is perhaps one of the oldest branches of Forensic Science, is the utilization of the insects and the relative species to arthropod that possess decomposing remains to assist legal investigations. Over the years Forensic Entomology has developed from being utilized just for discovering post-mortem interval for the season of death, the geological area of death, movement, or storage of remains after death. The involvement of Enomo-toxicology has additionally expanded and upgraded the function of entomology in forensic science. The term Entomotoxicology was first coined by Beyer and colleagues in the year 1980 and since then many entomologists have routinely started to detect drugs in insects found on the cadaver after a prolonged period (Pounder, 1991).
Entomotoxicology deals with the “examination of toxins” (poisons) in arthropods (mainly beetles and flies) that prey on carrion. Utilizing arthropods in a dead body or at a scene of the crime, forensic investigators can determine that at the time of death whether the poisons were present in a body or not. Therefore, the study of the helpfulness of insects as an alternative toxicological sample is known as Entomotoxicology (Dayananda and Kiran, 2013).
Entomotoxicology is a collaboration of fields of science, Zoology, and Chemistry that has been implemented as an alternative to toxicological samples. This method for drug detection in corpses is very well-reported and suggested when other biological matrices such as urine, blood, or integral organs have decomposed. One of the main applications of Forensic Science is to identify fatalities recovered after many weeks to months. Such cases arise if an individual has died in an isolated place because of substance abuse or has committed suicide. Insects prey on dead bodies that might have died because of a drug overdose and hence xenobiotics like drugs or any other toxic substances present within the tissue get introduced into the body of the larvae. The drugs then get distributed in their body and also pass onto other arthropods that predate on them (Chophi et al., 28-36).
The maggots may be used to determine the presence or absence of drugs when human body tissues are too badly decomposed to do toxicology on the tissue remains. Death because of abuse of drugs, insecticides, pesticides, and different poisons are normal everywhere in the world. It is reported that about 450,000 individuals died around the world because of drug abuse in 2015. About 275 million individuals aged (15–65 years) were accounted to possess abused drugs in any event once in the year 2016. It is estimated that on the brink of 800,000 individuals die per annum due to suicide, of which 20% (1,60,000) constitute death as a result of pesticide ingestion (Bachmann, 2018; www.who.int). These figures and numbers indicate that massive deaths occur because of drug abuse, and in several cases, dead bodies are recovered after many weeks to months (Carvalho et al., 2001; Goff et al., 1989).
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| APA Style | Khan, F. & Z, A. K. (2020). Entomotoxicology: An Alternative for Biological Specimens. Academic Journal of Forensic Sciences, 03(02), 26–32. |
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