Drugs and their Effects on Development Rate of Decomposers: An Entomotoxicological Approach

Forensic Entomotoxicology is an advanced branch of Forensic Entomology which studies the drugs ingested by insects that are feeding on cadaver. It is helpful in those cases where the time since death and cause of death is unknown. Many cases have been reported in which the cadaver is completely skeletonized and the toxicological studies can’t be done due to absence of body tissues and fluids; entomotoxicology plays a vital role in such cases. The time of death can be estimated from the life cycle of insects that are feeding on the cadaver. But in cases where the body was intoxicated, it can be difficult, as the drugs cause various effects on the development rate of insects and false results can be observed. Various studies have been done to check the effect of drugs on the development rate of insects or decomposers. However, entomotoxicology helps the justice system in a number of ways like estimating the time since death, identifying the place of death, analyzing the quality and quantity of drug, etc. Present review is a review of what various scientists studied about the effect of drugs on the rate of development of insects feeding on cadaver so that the better results can be calculated.