ABSTRACT
Forensic entomology is characteristically subdivided into medico-criminal, stored-product, urban, and environmental branches; only the rst branch has been developed substantially in Africa. Fortunately, many of the insect species that commonly appear in stored-product and urban cases are synanthropic and therefore very widely distributed, so that these branches of forensic entomology can draw on studies of the same species conducted outside Africa. Organized medico-criminal forensic entomological research has a brief history in Africa, arguably starting with the publication of a series of papers on the carrion community (Prins 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984a,b), but drawing on a history of taxonomic, agricultural, medical, and ecological studies (Williams and Villet 2006a).
