ABSTRACT
Forensic, or medico-legal, entomology is usually associated with establishing the minimum length of time during which insects have colonized remains. The most common in which a forensic entomologist will be able to assist in a neglect inquiry is when myiasis, usually cutaneous myiasis, occurs. Myiasis may occur in young children who are neglected and unable to clean themselves. In several death cases of both seniors and children in Germany, a forensic entomologist was able to show that the victims were colonized by insects before death and indicate the minimum length of time of neglect as well as the actual time of death which was crucial in several ways. In a normal forensic entomology case, in which the person was colonized after death, the ambient temperature of the scene, together with microclimatic conditions such as the temperature of a maggot mass, if present, are used in the calculation of insect age.
