ABSTRACT
China has a long history of using insects as evidence in criminal investigations. The book Washing Away of Wrongs (洗冤集 , Tz’u 1247), published during the Song dynasty, presents more than 15 cases where insect evidence was used in relation to criminal investigations, ranging from estimating the postmortem interval (PMI) to descriptions of damage to human remains by arthropods. The most famous of which was the identication of a murderer due to ies (Diptera) gathering on the blade of the perpetrator’s sickle, which was usually used to cut rice, but in this case, used to commit murder.
