Elaboration of interactive key for species of Sarcophagidae (Diptera: Muscomorpha) of medical and forensic importance

• Grant number: 12/10353-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: September 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Patricia Jacqueline Thyssen
• Grantee: Marina Ferrari Klemm de Aquino
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The dipterans have always been associated with many human environments and may cause damage to public health or, in the other hand, be useful in the medico-legal scope to estimate the time of death in cases of suspicious death. For this reason, they have great importance in medical and forensic areas. Many faunistic dipteran surveys that were done and, especially, the ones that have been done now in Brazil are precarious to refer to the given species by using superior taxonomic levels due to a set of difficulties, among them, absence of taxonomic keys for certain groups and unsuitable description of characters in some of the existent keys. So, the progress of any other works that aim to investigate the biology, ecology or dynamic of those organisms in the nature will also be harmed, since it is not possible to associate one study to an abstract category such as 'morpho-type'. The conventional keys for identification of sarcophagid species are extremely advantageous, but they can difficult this process when based on male terminalia, for example. The interactive taxonomic keys done with aid of computational programs are an alternative that can offer larger flexibility during the identification process because they present illustrations and detailed explanations, besides they allow the selection of any character without a pre-determined order and a margin of error calculation. In the Neotropical region there are only two register of interactive key for Diptera. In this study, specific characters will be survey for 14 species of Sarcophagidae family from São Paulo State. After compilation, the most relevant characters will be described and illustred for elaboration of interactive keys with the aid of the LUCID® program. The final work will be available on web. (AU)