Calliphoridae (Insecta, Diptera) associados às fases de decomposição de carcaças de suínos (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) em área de caatinga no estado da Paraíba

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify and analyze the abundance of dipteran family Calliphoridae present along the decomposing carcass of pigs in the Cariri, Paraiba State, Brazil, in two periods: rainy and dry. The study was conducted in Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) Fazenda Almas, in São José dos Cordeiros-PB. We used two pig carcasses (Sus scrofa) by period, protected from scavengers by a metal cage inside trap like "Shannon". Samples were collected daily, twice a day, for eleven days in both periods. The meteorological data of precipitation were obtained at the Centro de Previsão e Estudos Climáticos do INMET and temperature and relative humidity were obtained in situ using a digital hygrometer. The insects collected were placed in the laboratory of entomology of UFPB and identified as well. We collected 8.811 individuals of the family Calliphoridae, belonging to six species (Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann, 1819), Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius, 1775), Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann, 1818), Chloroprocta idioidea (Robineau-Devoidy, 1830), Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) e Lucilia eximia (Wiedemann, 1818)), which were presented the in both the periods, although a relative abundance of species was higher in the rainy period (4.706). We measured the abundance of species per period, where C. albiceps was the most abundant in the dry period (3.244/36, 81%) and C. idioidea in the rainy period (2.860/32, 45%). There were five stages of decomposition: fresh, chromatic, emphysematous, coliquative and skeletonization stage. The emphysematous was the stage where we most collected Calliphoridae (3.923/44, 52%), followed by skeletonization (3.458/39, 25%), chromatic (726 / 8.24%), coliquative (627/7, 12%) and fresh (77/0, 87%). It was also found that the highest abundance of C. idioidea occurred on the highest elevation of relative humidity and rainfall. This study is the first survey of the region of Caatinga in Paraiba state using active collecting, these results will serve to enrich the data to local forensic entomology and will contribute to the understanding the fauna of the region carrion flies.