New piophilid in town: the first Palaearctic record of Piophila megastigmata and its coexistence with Piophila casei in central Spain

The genus Piophila Fallén (Diptera: Piophilidae) is known from only two species: Piophila casei (L.) is a major pest, a cosmopolitan species and is commonly used as a forensic indicator, whereas Piophila megastigmata McAlpine has until now only been recorded in a natural environment in South Africa....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Martín Vega, Daniel|||0000-0002-5626-5441, Gómez Gómez, Aida María, Baz Ramos, Arturo|||0000-0002-6750-2940, Díaz Aranda, Luisa María|||0000-0001-8450-0544
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)
Repositorio:e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/63201
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10017/63201
https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2915.2010.00907.x
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Piophila casei
Piophila megastigmata
Foreign species
Spain
Forensic entomology
Zoología
Zoology
Descripción
Sumario:The genus Piophila Fallén (Diptera: Piophilidae) is known from only two species: Piophila casei (L.) is a major pest, a cosmopolitan species and is commonly used as a forensic indicator, whereas Piophila megastigmata McAlpine has until now only been recorded in a natural environment in South Africa. The present work reports the first occurrence of P. megastigmata in the Palaearctic region from specimens collected by carrion-baited traps throughout different natural habitats of central Spain. Furthermore, the species was also collected with P. casei on corpses of domestic pigs used in a carrion succession study in a periurban habitat in central Spain. Both species occurred on carrion in different seasons, but P. megastigmata was more abundant than P. casei in autumn, arriving earlier at the carcasses and persisting for a longer period. The contrary pattern was observed in spring. The presence of P. megastigmata in different localities in central Spain and its coexistence with P. casei in a periurban habitat make it a potentially useful new tool for legal medicine in Europe; thus this species must be considered in forensic entomology studies.