A brief survey of the history of forensic entomology Ein kurzer Streifzug durch die Geschichte der forensischen Entomologie

The fact that insects and other arthropods contribute to the decomposition of corpses and even may help to solve killings is known for years. In China (13th century) a killer was convicted with the help of flies. Artistic contributions, e.g. from the 15th and 16th century, show corpses with “worms”, i.e. maggots. At the end of the 18th and in the beginning of the 19th century forensic doctors pointed out the significance of maggots for decomposition of corpses and soon the hour of death was determined using pupae of flies (Diptera) and larval moths (Lepidoptera) as indicators. In the eighties of the 19th century, when REINHARD and HOFMANN documented adult flies (Phoridae) on corpses during mass exhumation, case reports began to be replaced by systematic studies and entomology became an essential part of forensic medicine and criminology. At nearly the same time the French army veterinarian MÉGNIN recognized that the colonisation of corpses, namely outside the grave, takes place in predictable waves; his book “La faune des cadavres” published in 1894 is a mile stone of the forensic entomology. Canadian (JOHNSTON & VILLENEUVE) and American (MOTTER) scientists have been influenced by MÉGNIN. Since 1895 the former studied forensically important insects on non buried corpses and in 1896 and 1897 MOTTER published observations on the fauna of exhumed corpses, the state of corpses as well as the composition of earth and the time of death of corpses in the grave. At the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century the Germans KLINGELHÖFFER and MASCHKA as well as the forensic doctor HOROSKIEWICZ from Krakau dealt with alleged child homicides, including the suspected use of sulphuric acid. In this context, it was shown that ants, cockroaches and freshwater arthropods could produce post-mortem artefacts suggestive of child abuse. These and many other studies laid the foundations for subsequent faunistic surveys, monographs and ecological studies of arthropods important for forensic science and for the development of modern, better and better research methods of forensic entomology. Since the 1990’s, forensic entomology is taught and practiced in many countries in all continents and police academies, and international trainings for students take place since 2002 on a regular base.