Recent African derivation of Chrysomya putoria from C. chloropyga and mitochondrial DNA paraphyly of cytochrome oxidase subunit one in blowflies of forensic importance
- Wells, J D, Lunt, N, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Wells, J D , Lunt, N , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6888 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011648
- Description: Chrysomya chloropyga (Wiedemann) and C. putoria (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are closely related Afrotropical blowflies that breed in carrion and latrines, reaching high density in association with humans and spreading to other continents. In some cases of human death, Chyrsomya specimens provide forensic clues. Because the immature stages of such flies are often difficult to identify taxonomically, it is useful to develop DNA-based tests for specimen identification. Therefore we attempted to distinguish between C. chloropyga and C. putoria using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data from a 593-bp region of the gene for cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI). Twelve specimens from each species yielded a total of five haplotypes, none being unique to C. putoria. Therefore it was not possible to distinguish between the two species using this locus. Maximum parsimony analysis indicated paraphyletic C. chloropyga mtDNA with C. putoria nested therein. Based on these and previously published data, we infer that C. putoria diverged very recently from C. chloropyga.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
- Authors: Wells, J D , Lunt, N , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6888 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011648
- Description: Chrysomya chloropyga (Wiedemann) and C. putoria (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are closely related Afrotropical blowflies that breed in carrion and latrines, reaching high density in association with humans and spreading to other continents. In some cases of human death, Chyrsomya specimens provide forensic clues. Because the immature stages of such flies are often difficult to identify taxonomically, it is useful to develop DNA-based tests for specimen identification. Therefore we attempted to distinguish between C. chloropyga and C. putoria using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data from a 593-bp region of the gene for cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI). Twelve specimens from each species yielded a total of five haplotypes, none being unique to C. putoria. Therefore it was not possible to distinguish between the two species using this locus. Maximum parsimony analysis indicated paraphyletic C. chloropyga mtDNA with C. putoria nested therein. Based on these and previously published data, we infer that C. putoria diverged very recently from C. chloropyga.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
Recruitment behaviour in the ponerine ant, Plectroctena mandibularis F. Smith (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
- Wilkins, K J, Harman, K, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Wilkins, K J , Harman, K , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6887 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011647
- Description: Although workers of Plectroctena mandibularis laid trails with their stings while foraging, the trails appeared to be for individual orientation, because they never recruited nestmates to prey. However, both workers and queens laid trails when recruiting nestmates of either caste to new nest sites. During trail-laying, fluted hairs on the posterior edge of tergite VI were dragged along the ground, presumably applying a pheromone to the substrate. Anatomical and behavioural evidence suggests that pygidial gland secretions moved from the intersegmental pygidial gland between tergites VI and VII into a fingerprint-like, lamellar cuticular reservoir on the pygidium, and from there via the hairs to the substrate. These results suggest that recruitment may be crucial to moving nests but of value only to certain types of foraging, and that recruitment might even have originated in the Formicidae in the context of colony relocation, and then secondarily evolved to assist foraging.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: Wilkins, K J , Harman, K , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6887 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011647
- Description: Although workers of Plectroctena mandibularis laid trails with their stings while foraging, the trails appeared to be for individual orientation, because they never recruited nestmates to prey. However, both workers and queens laid trails when recruiting nestmates of either caste to new nest sites. During trail-laying, fluted hairs on the posterior edge of tergite VI were dragged along the ground, presumably applying a pheromone to the substrate. Anatomical and behavioural evidence suggests that pygidial gland secretions moved from the intersegmental pygidial gland between tergites VI and VII into a fingerprint-like, lamellar cuticular reservoir on the pygidium, and from there via the hairs to the substrate. These results suggest that recruitment may be crucial to moving nests but of value only to certain types of foraging, and that recruitment might even have originated in the Formicidae in the context of colony relocation, and then secondarily evolved to assist foraging.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
A history of southern African research relevant to forensic entomology
- Williams, K A, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Williams, K A , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6909 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011862
- Description: Entomological forensic evidence has been used in southern Africa for decades but explicitly forensic research began in southern Africa only 26 years ago. Although applicable local research has accumulated since 1921, it is scattered in a diverse literature or unpublished. Some overseas research has also touched on local species. This review uses a historical approach to synthesize the southern African literature and to illustrate the cross-disciplinary, opportunistic nature of forensic entomology. Distinct phases of research focused on agriculture (1921-1950), medicine (1952- 1965), ecology (1968-1990) and forensics (1980-2005), but systematics spanned the entire period and tended to be ad hoc. Few scientists were involved, situated at geographically distant locations and with widely disparate research interests. The review concludes with an overview of southern African entomologists who have been involved in medico-legal investigations, and a critical evaluation of the past and future of the discipline locally.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: Williams, K A , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6909 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011862
- Description: Entomological forensic evidence has been used in southern Africa for decades but explicitly forensic research began in southern Africa only 26 years ago. Although applicable local research has accumulated since 1921, it is scattered in a diverse literature or unpublished. Some overseas research has also touched on local species. This review uses a historical approach to synthesize the southern African literature and to illustrate the cross-disciplinary, opportunistic nature of forensic entomology. Distinct phases of research focused on agriculture (1921-1950), medicine (1952- 1965), ecology (1968-1990) and forensics (1980-2005), but systematics spanned the entire period and tended to be ad hoc. Few scientists were involved, situated at geographically distant locations and with widely disparate research interests. The review concludes with an overview of southern African entomologists who have been involved in medico-legal investigations, and a critical evaluation of the past and future of the discipline locally.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Identifying flies used for maggot debridement therapy
- Williams, K A, Cronje, F, Avenant, L, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Williams, K A , Cronje, F , Avenant, L , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6852 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011133
- Description: To the Editor: The use of maggots to clean necrotic wounds, known as maggot debridement therapy (MDT), has long been known to the scientific world. Its use has been recorded since the 1500s when soldiers’ wounds were often infested with maggots. Napoleon’s surgeon, Baron Dominic Larrey, reported that wounds that were infested with maggots appeared to heal faster than those without maggots.1 William Baer is considered to be the founder of modern MDT. While treating soldiers in World War I, he noted the good condition of wounds that had been infested with maggots, and was the first doctor on record to experiment with the use of maggots in treating infections.1 MDT even featured in the recent version of the film ‘Spartacus’. Various species of flies have been used for MDT,1 the most commonly used being Lucilia sericata, a greenbottle blowfly (Figs 1 and 2). This fly is closely related to another greenbottle, L. cuprina, but L. cuprina feeds on live as well as necrotic tissue, which is undesirable in MDT. L. cuprina is commonly named the ‘sheep blowfly’ because it is responsible for fly-strike in sheep, a form of massive, usually rectal myiasis that can kill sheep. A recent article2 suggested that L. cuprina was being used successfully for MDT at the Eugene Marais Hospital Wound Care Centre (EMHWCC). As this would be inconsistent with international experience in MDT and at odds with the usual biology of L. cuprina, it was decided to check the identity of these flies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Williams, K A , Cronje, F , Avenant, L , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6852 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011133
- Description: To the Editor: The use of maggots to clean necrotic wounds, known as maggot debridement therapy (MDT), has long been known to the scientific world. Its use has been recorded since the 1500s when soldiers’ wounds were often infested with maggots. Napoleon’s surgeon, Baron Dominic Larrey, reported that wounds that were infested with maggots appeared to heal faster than those without maggots.1 William Baer is considered to be the founder of modern MDT. While treating soldiers in World War I, he noted the good condition of wounds that had been infested with maggots, and was the first doctor on record to experiment with the use of maggots in treating infections.1 MDT even featured in the recent version of the film ‘Spartacus’. Various species of flies have been used for MDT,1 the most commonly used being Lucilia sericata, a greenbottle blowfly (Figs 1 and 2). This fly is closely related to another greenbottle, L. cuprina, but L. cuprina feeds on live as well as necrotic tissue, which is undesirable in MDT. L. cuprina is commonly named the ‘sheep blowfly’ because it is responsible for fly-strike in sheep, a form of massive, usually rectal myiasis that can kill sheep. A recent article2 suggested that L. cuprina was being used successfully for MDT at the Eugene Marais Hospital Wound Care Centre (EMHWCC). As this would be inconsistent with international experience in MDT and at odds with the usual biology of L. cuprina, it was decided to check the identity of these flies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008