Metrological framework for selecting morphological characters to identify species and estimate developmental maturity of forensically significant insect specimens  

作　　者：John Mark Midgley Martin Herrer Villet 

机构地区：[1]Southern African Forensic Entomology Research Laboratory,Department of Zoology and Entomology,Rhodes University,Makhanda,South Africa [2]Department of Natural Sciences,KwaZulu-Natal Museum,Pietermaritzburg,South Africa

出　　处：《Forensic Sciences Research》2021年第1期75-83,共9页法庭科学研究（英文）

摘　　要：Accurate age estimates of immature necrophagous insects associated with a human or animal body can provide evidence of how long the body has been dead.These estimates are based on species-specific details of the insects’aging processes,and therefore require accurate species identification and developmental stage estimation.Many professionals who produce or use identified organisms as forensic evidence have little training in taxonomy or metrology,and appreciate the availability of formalized principles and standards for biological identification.Taxonomic identifications are usually most readily and economically made using categorical and qualitative morphological characters,but it may be necessary to use less convenient and potentially more ambiguous characters that are continuous and quantitative if two candidate species are closely related,or if identifying developmental stages within a species.Characters should be selected by criteria such as taxonomic specificity and metrological repeatability and relative error.We propose such a hierarchical framework,critique various measurements of immature insects,and suggest some standard approaches to determine the reliability of organismal identifications and measurements in estimating postmortem intervals.Relevant criteria for good characters include high repeatability(including low scope for ambiguity or parallax effects),pronounced discreteness,and small relative error in measurements.These same principles apply to individuation of unique objects in general.

关 键 词：orensic sciences forensic entomology identification INDIVIDUATION data types metrology measurement error REPEATABILITY 

分 类 号：D919.4[医药卫生—法医学]