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Forensically useful Large Carrion Beetles in Croatia, Silphidae (Coleoptera, Insecta)

Forensic entomology deals with biology and ecology of insects, mainly in estimation of the post-mortem interval, but also provides evidence of body movement when the insect recovered from the corpse is found outside its normal geographical distribution. Here we list the large carrion beetles (Silphidae) present in Croatia with ID photos and figures of each species together with notes on their distribution and biogeography. Our latest data were assembled with the help of the liter-ature and collections of the Museums of Natural History in Split and Zagreb. According to the latest world catalogue, there are 21 species recorded in Croatia. Most are present in Croatian museum collections and can help the taxonomic verification of collected crime evidence. Most of the large carrion beetles present in Croatian fauna are also widely distributed across Europe, except for the few Mediterranean species such as Silpha olivieri (Bedel, 1887) that is adapted for warmer and dryer climate. Therefore, biogeography should be taken into account when analysing insect succession and temperature dependence in carrion decom-position as well as geographical origin of the carcasses. In cases when early developmental maggot stages are difficult for identification by morphological analysis, DNA can be extracted and COI barcoding regions can be sequenced. That would enable the molecular identification of maggots and provide the information for NCBI database. Since entomology has not been fully integrated into the official forensic practice in Croatia, we hope this information will further stimulate taxonomic and related research to advance forensic entomology.

Coleoptera, Silphidae, Croatia, forensically useful

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