Thesis Title: The effect of temperatures on the developmental rate of Lucilia sericata (Meigen, 1826) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) found within the Western Cape of South Africa.
Supervisors: Dr Calvin Mole and Ms Wilmari Uys 

A vital component of the medico-legal investigative process is determining the minimum time since death also referred to as the minimum post-mortem interval (minPMI). Unfortunately, medical taphonomic information pertaining to the body becomes less precise 72 hours after death making accurate minPMI estimation difficult to ascertain. Therefore, the best indicator of minPMI after 72 hours is insects, making the presence of insects crucial in an investigation. However, the development of blowflies is greatly temperature-dependent and fluctuations in the ambient environmental temperature can impact their growth. This emphasises the importance of obtaining data on the effects of temperature on the development of blowflies such as L. sericata and investigating the developmental times of L. sericata for a wide range of temperatures. Developmental times for blowfly species can also differ for different regions due to environmental factors and despite the availability of previous developmental studies on L. sericata, to our knowledge, there is no data specific to the Western Cape. This highlights the need for region-specific developmental data as using data that is not specific to the location of interest may result in an unreliable minPMI estimation that is either over or underestimated. Therefore, the aim of this research project is to establish developmental data for Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) found within the Western Cape for the generation of isomorphen and isomegalen diagrams, to facilitate more accurate estimation of post-mortem intervals (PMI).