Elaboration of interactive keys for sarcophagids (Diptera: Muscomorpha) of medical, veterinary and forensic importance from São Paulo State

• Grant number: 09/15958-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2010
• End date: December 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Entomology and Malacology of Parasites and Vectors
• Principal Investigator: Patricia Jacqueline Thyssen
• Grantee: Carlos Alexandre Alves
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The dipterans have always been associated with various human environments may cause damage to public health, economic loss or, in the other hand, be useful in the medico-legal scope to estimate the time of death in cases of suspicious death. For these reason, they have great importance in the medical, veterinary or forensic areas. Many dipteran faunistic surveys that were 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 abstract category as 'morpho-type'. The conventional keys for identification of species are extremely advantageous, but they can make difficult to this process. 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 is only one register of interactive key for Diptera. In this study specific characters will be survey for 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 in Cd-rom and in web. (AU)