Alignment of COI haplotypes from museum samples of Diptera of forensic importance

Necrophagous Diptera are the most important group of insects used for the purposes of forensic entomology. While the most utilized fly family in this context is the family Calliphoridae, there is a number of other families, which can be of a great importance during real case investigations. This article analyses the necrophagous flies of all families recorded from 160 real cases in Switzerland in between 1993-2007. A total of 56 species belonging to 16 families was identified with Calliphoridae being the most dominant family (90,63 % of all cases), followed by Muscidae (26,25 %), Sarcophagidae (19,38 %), Phoridae (14,38 %) and Fanniidae (12,50 %). For specimens that were difficult to identify morphologically, a new PCR primer has been specifically designed for the amplification of a short, informative COI barcode in degraded museum samples of forensically important Diptera taxa. The richest family in terms of species was the family Muscidae with 16 species. Fannia fuscula and Fannia monilis were recorded from human cadavers for the first time. The study highlights the importance of different fly families in forensic investigation, enhancing our comprehension of their prevalence and dispersion in real cases in Central Europe. The results pave the way for additional exploration, especially regarding the involvement of less frequently observed species in forensic entomology.