Fly - Maggots

Maggots

Further information: Maggot

Maggots found on corpses are useful to forensic scientists, specifically for those who study forensic entomology. This is because the forensic scientists are able to ascertain stages of the development of maggots. According to their stage of development, the maggots indicate the time elapsed since death, as well as the place of death.

Maggot species can be identified using their DNA. The housefly maggot measures 10–20 mm (⅜–¾ in) in size. At the height of the summer season, a generation of flies (egg to adult) may be produced in 12 to 14 days. Other insect families, such as Histeridae, feed on maggots. Thus the lack of maggots would increase the estimated time since death.

Maggots are bred commercially, as a popular bait in angling, and as a food for carnivorous pets such as reptiles or birds.

Maggots are used in medicine to clean out necrotic wounds and in food production, particularly of cheeses such as casu marzu designed to rot as part of their aging process.

Flies are reared in large numbers in Japan to serve as pollinators of sunflowers in greenhouses, especially the maggots.

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Famous quotes containing the word maggots:

    “We can remember as easily as the day we were born
    The maggots we passed on the way and how the day bled
    And the night too on hearing us, though we spoke only our childish
    Ideas and never tried to impress anybody even when somewhat older.”
    —John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    “The North will at least preserve your flesh for you; Northerners are pale for good and all. There’s very little difference between a dead Swede and a young man who’s had a bad night. But the Colonial is full of maggots the day after he gets off the boat.”
    —Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)

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    —Angela Carter (1940–1992)