Morphological characterization of puparia and molecular analysis of Heleomyza serrata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera: Heleomyzidae): a species of potential forensic interest

In medicolegal forensic entomology, the estimation of the minimum postmortem interval and any other evaluation depend on the accuracy of the species identification. Although the most common species received a lot of attention in the last years, other species in less common families still remain poorly investigated and sometimes the immature stages, especially puparia, are not described. The finding of several specimens of Heleomyza serrata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera: Heleomyzidae) during an experiment with rabbit cadavers provided the opportunity to describe the puparium of this species. Molecular analysis based on the COI region enabled the evaluation of the monophyly of the genus and on the other side highlighted the usefulness of this sequence for the identification of this taxon. In general, this work offers a morphological and molecular overview about a species that has been underestimated in forensic investigations being potentially present on human and other animals’ cadavers during the cold seasons.