International Journal of Entomology Research

Authors
Madhu Bala, Neha Singh

Abstract
This preliminary study highlights the importance of beetles belonging to the family Silphidae as forensic evidence. Although recorded specimens were reported earlier in prior studies but these species were not defined as forensically important. Silphidae (carrion beetles) are one of the several families of forensic importance in the order Coleoptera. It consists of two subfamilies i.e. Silphinae and Nicrophorinae and both are the frequent visitors of carrion. The work reported here monitored the presence of the carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) by using bait traps with the meat of goat (Capra sp., Bovidae) in the summer of 2014 and 2015 from Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Seven species of Silphidae were recorded: Necrophila (Calosilpha) ioptera (Kollar & Redtenbacher, 1848), Necrophila (Deutosilpha) rufithorax (Wiedemann, 1832), Necrophila (Calosilpha) cyaniventris (Motschulsky, 1870), Necrodes littoralis (Linnaeus, 1758), Necrodes nigricornis (Harold, 1875), Nicrophorus nepalensis (Hope, 1931) and Thanatophilus minutus (Kraatz, 1876).