Suppose you found a dead deer and wanted to know how long ago it died. for the past few days, the temperature has been around 27c. you study the insects on the deer and find c. macellaria at 2nd and 3rd instars, and you find s. bullata at the 3rd instar stage. which of the following answers is correct about how long ago the animal died?

a: the deer died at least 56 hours ago
b: the deer died less than 26 hours ago
c: the deer died at least 72 hours ago
d: the deer died less than 56 hours ago, but not less than 32 hours ago

The correct answer will be option-C

Explanation:

Forensic entomology studies the developmental stage of bugs on the dead body which help in the estimation of the time of death.

The entomologists study the time of hatching of the eggs and then studying the developmental stages from pupa to larvae and then to adults as the time period is regular for the insects.

Since the female hatches the egg which turns into the first instar in 23 hours after laying eggs at moderate temperature, the second instar after 2 days and third instar after 3 days which starts to crawl and on the 8th day becomes a pupa.

This shows that deer died at least 72 hours ago and thus Option-C is the correct answer.