Succession patterns for insect fauna, spanning four seasons, on rabbit carcasses were studied in Guangzhou China from 2006 to 2008. A total of 49 taxa belonging to three orders and 15 families were collected and ident...Succession patterns for insect fauna, spanning four seasons, on rabbit carcasses were studied in Guangzhou China from 2006 to 2008. A total of 49 taxa belonging to three orders and 15 families were collected and identified. Four decomposition stages were recognized： fresh, bloated, decay and dry stage. Taxa diversity was higher in bloated and decay stages than fresh and dry stages. Internal and ambient temperatures were measured. Maximum internal temperature arrived earlier in warmer seasons. The sequence of insect succession in this study follows the same general patterns： the Diptera peaked initially, and the Coleoptera peaked later. Chrysomya megacephala was the dominant species in four seasons. Its time point of different development stages on carrion could be the most important indicators for PMI （postmortem interval） estimation in Guangzhou. Yearly and seasonal differences in activities of insects were compared. Alpha diversity indices were calculated. There were no significant differences in Shannon-Wiener index, evenness （J） and dominance （C） between seasons and years. From the Jaccard similarity index, the highest similarity was between winter and spring, while the lowest was between summer and winter. Some species occurring exclusively in one season may be important to characterize different seasons. A list of the insect taxa associated with above-ground rabbit carrion during the four seasons was compiled, which can be used for estimating time since death in similar bio-climate areas.展开更多
基金Acknowledgments We thank the following specialists for identification or confirmation of specimens： Ge-Qiu Liang, Feng-Long Jia （Sun Yat-Sen University） Shuang Zhao （Guangdong Entomological Institute） Ye-Jun Zhang, Yang Zhuo and Tian-Hong Luo （Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences）. This study was supported by the Science ＆ Technology Brainstorm Project of China （Grant No.2005BA529A06）, and the Nature Science Foundation of China （Grant No. 30671394）.
文摘Succession patterns for insect fauna, spanning four seasons, on rabbit carcasses were studied in Guangzhou China from 2006 to 2008. A total of 49 taxa belonging to three orders and 15 families were collected and identified. Four decomposition stages were recognized： fresh, bloated, decay and dry stage. Taxa diversity was higher in bloated and decay stages than fresh and dry stages. Internal and ambient temperatures were measured. Maximum internal temperature arrived earlier in warmer seasons. The sequence of insect succession in this study follows the same general patterns： the Diptera peaked initially, and the Coleoptera peaked later. Chrysomya megacephala was the dominant species in four seasons. Its time point of different development stages on carrion could be the most important indicators for PMI （postmortem interval） estimation in Guangzhou. Yearly and seasonal differences in activities of insects were compared. Alpha diversity indices were calculated. There were no significant differences in Shannon-Wiener index, evenness （J） and dominance （C） between seasons and years. From the Jaccard similarity index, the highest similarity was between winter and spring, while the lowest was between summer and winter. Some species occurring exclusively in one season may be important to characterize different seasons. A list of the insect taxa associated with above-ground rabbit carrion during the four seasons was compiled, which can be used for estimating time since death in similar bio-climate areas.
