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Systematics, Morphology and Biogeography • Rev. Bras. entomol. 59 (4) • Oct-Dec 2015 • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbe.2015.07.008 linkcopy

Open-access Coleoptera species of forensic importance from Brazil: an updated list

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    ABSTRACT

    A list of the Coleoptera of importance from Brazil, based on published records was compiled. The checklist contains 345 species of 16 families allocated to 16 states of the country. In addition, three species of two families are registered for the first time. The fauna of Coleoptera of forensic importance is still not entirely known and future collection efforts and taxonomic reviews could increase the number of known species considerably in the near future.

    Keywords: Beetles; Cleridae; Dermestidae; Forensic entomology; Silphidae

    Introduction

    The development of forensic entomology in Brazil was well reported by Pujol-Luz et al. (2008). It started in 1908, with the pioneers Roquette-Pinto and Oscar Freire, who noted the high diversity of the native fauna of necrophagous insects and the impossibility of direct application of the methods developed in Europe. Oscar Freire (1914a,b) was the first to present a collection of insects associated with his investigations, mainly obtained from human corpses and small animals in Bahia State. Herman Lüderwaldt (1911) published a list of Coleoptera associated with several kinds of carrion in São Paulo, which is still an important reference on the subject. In 1941, Samuel Pessôa and Frederick Lane published a paper regarding Scarabaeidae of medico-legal importance (Pessôa and Lane, 1941). After this period, the studies and the information regarding forensically important species of Coleoptera from Brazil became disperse and available in books, articles, catalogues, reports and collections or other non-indexed sources (i.e. monographs, dissertations and theses).

    Almeida and Mise (2009) published the first list of South American Coleoptera, comprising 15 families and Vasconcelos and Araújo (2012) presented a list of insects collected in northeastern Brazil.

    The forensic importance of Coleoptera is often underestimated due to the belief that they occur only at late stages of decomposition. However, more studies about their taxonomy, biology and behaviour are needed before their importance can be fully understood (see Midgley et al., 2010). The diversity of Coleoptera and the lack of taxonomic studies have direct effect in how the beetles can be used in forensic entomology, mostly because unidentified material cannot be used for a postmortem interval estimative.

    Coleoptera families with known predatory and necrophagous habit (i.e. carrion feeders) are listed as having potential forensic importance (see Smith, 1986; Byrd and Castner, 2010). The necrophilous habit (i.e. associated with carrion/corpses) is an indicative of the potential forensic importance, but the correct identification is the first step for the better understanding of the role of the species at their environment and guide future studies about its biology and distribution.

    The main objective of this study was to present an updated list of Coleoptera species associated with carrion/corpses in Brazil. More specifically, it aimed to provide updated data about the geographical distribution and substratum in which species were collected, as well as to provide a checklist of current valid names.

    Material and methods

    The list of species of Coleoptera was based on information collected from published literature from 1908 to 2014 with some new data included (Table 1) and consider mostly studies of forensic entomology, ecological succession and fauna surveys performed in Brazil.

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    Table 1
    Compiled list of Coleoptera species of forensic importance from Brazil.

    The taxa considered of potential forensic importance followed two criteria: lists of Coleoptera families associated with carrion available in previous studies (e.g. Payne, 1969; Smith, 1986; Mise et al., 2007; Byrd and Castner, 2010); and their feeding habit. Every taxon listed here is described in literature as being necrophagous or predator.

    Results and discussion

    Our survey listed 345 records of 16 families: Carabidae, Cleridae, Dermestidae, Geotrupidae, Histeridae, Hybosoridae, Hydrophilidae, Leiodidae (=Cholevidae), Nitidulidae, Ptiliidae, Monotomidae (=Rhizophagidae), Scarabaeidae, Silphidae, Staphylinidae, Tenebrionidae and Trogidae, allocated to 16 Brazilian states (Table 1).

    In Table 1 we include information about taxa (valid name in the original combination and name as cited in literature), substratum (type of carcass or corpse), distribution (locality and states) and the references where the data was originally cited.

    Some taxa have no available information about the substratum and they are refered here as “not specified”. Several species do not have available information beyond family, tribe or genera (refered as “taxa.sp”) and we present the information the way it was published. The apparently repetition of some taxa are due the unknown identification, meaning that it is impossible to say if they are the same species.

    Scarabaeidae was the family with the highest number of specimens registered (158), followed by Staphylinidae (84) and Histeridae (36 species).

    Three species are recorded for the first time: Stelidota geminata (Say, 1825) and Stelidota octomaculata (Say, 1825) (Nitidulidae) in rabbit carcass and Oxelytrum erythrurum (Blanchard, 1840) (Silphidae) in pig, rabbit and chicken carcasses.

    The majority of records collected for Scarabaeidae are from Pessoa and Lane (1941) which performed a review of Scarabaeidae of medico-legal importance in Brazil. Considering the abundance of registers for this family, and their saprophagous habits, Scarabaeidae apparently have a great unexplored potential for forensic entomology. In the same scenario Nitidulidae is a family known of necrophagous species (see Abbott, 1937; Payne, 1969) have been largely underestimated and its value in forensic investigations is still to be stablished (Byrd and Castner, 2010).

    As it was stated before, the potential forensic interest of the species is based not only in their records on carcasses but also upon their feeding habit. The knowledge about behaviour and ecological roles in Coleoptera is not as clear as it is in Diptera. Abbott (1937) and Payne (1969) produced an informative review about the behaviour of Coleoptera on carrion, but not much has been done since then. The result is that many taxa with potential importance have been neglected.

    The families listed in the present study have documented necrophilous habit, but have not been necessarily found in corpses or used as evidence in actual cases. However, most families have been recorded as associated with human corpses: Cleridae, Dermestidae, Histeridae and Staphylinidae (Turchetto et al., 2001); Silphidae (Souza et al., 2014); Geotrupidae (Nuorteva, 1977); Rhizophagidae and Tenebrionidae (Mégnin, 1894); Hydrophilidae and Leiodidae (Easton and Smith, 1970); Nitidulidae (Adair and Kondratieff, 1996); Carabidae, Ptiliidae and Scarabaeidae (Motter, 1898); Trogidae (Lefebvre and Gaudry, 2009). Even though several taxa listed here belong to families refered as saprophagous (i.e. organic matter feeders – Torre-Bueno, 1989), the presence of those families near or in corpses provides a certain level of certainty to affirm that they are associated with the corpse and have a potential use for forensic entomology.

    In forensic entomology studies, Coleoptera is frequently mentioned as an order of great importance alongside Diptera. However, the importance of the order is often neglected due to taxonomic difficulties or other issues regarding the role of those insects in corpses. Several species (Table 1) were reported in carcasses as potential indicators for forensic entomology, but registers from human corpses are rare. The question at this point is the absence of species or the lack of available knowledge (e.g. tools for identification, behavioural and ecological data) that does not allow the use of the group in real cases? As mentioned before, Coleoptera have a great potential for forensic entomology, but is often underestimated especially when Diptera is available.

    The reported occurrences (Table 2) are restricted to 16 states and showed a biased pattern towards Southeast (233) and South (133) regions, being São Paulo (SP) (140) and Paraná (PR) (104) the most representative states.

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    Table 2
    Number of records available of Coleoptera of forensic interest per State and Region of Brazil.

    Due its massive territory and biased efforts of collect, not much is known about the Coleoptera of potential importance in Brazil. Future efforts should focus on experiments in different regions and states to increase the database of necrophilous insects. The list of names presented here has the objective to help the dissemination of the correct names of species, often misspelled.

    Acknowledgments

    We wish to thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the fellowships to the authors LMA (306772/2006–0); RCC (151675/2012-0) and PCG (503206/2011-3). This is contribution number 1911 of the Department of Zoology, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil.

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    Publication Dates

    • Publication in this collection
      Oct-Dec 2015

    History

    • Received
      21 May 2015
    • Accepted
      14 Aug 2015
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    This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial No Derivative License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited and the work is not changed in any way.
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