Análise da ação da entomofauna em carcaças de suínos (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) contaminados com inseticida e uso de evidências entomológicas em um caso de homicídio no Centro-Oeste

Abstract

Forensic entomology uses data on the biology and behavior of insects such as entomological succession in carcasses, development rates of forensic importante species, their behavioral patterns and other data obtained from entomological evidence to elucidate legal issues such as time of death, the nature of crime, the detection of narcotics or biological materials at the crime scene and other cases occurring during investigations. Some important factors that may influence this information must be taken into account such as temperature, humidity, microenvironment in the carcass or even contaminations by narcotic substances, medicine drugs or agricultural pesticides. In Chapter I, evaluating the effects of insecticide contamination on the action of forensic interest insects and the time of decomposition in pig carcasses, our results indicate that the contamination can lead to the increase in the total time and the phases of decomposition, the delay in the development of forensic importance insects or even the death of these individuals, besides differences in the composition and abundance of species in contaminated carcasses and control carcasses. In Chapter II, reporting for the first time the use of insects as evidence in a criminal case in the Brazilian midwest, we used entomological data collected in a homicide case in Dourados, MS, Brazil, and obtained relevant information for criminal investigations, in which it was possible to estimate the minimum Postmortem Interval (minPMI) and also to infer about the possible cause of death. Our results show that the contamination of agricultural pesticides in carcasses must be taken into account when using entomological data as vestiges in investigations, since they mainly change the abundance, composition and colonization of insects in carcasses, besides altering the decomposition time. In addition, the results demonstrate the potential of forensic entomology as a complementary tool to uncover real cases in the Brazilian midwest.