NDLI: Mégnin re-analysed: the case of the newborn baby girl, Paris, 1878

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Perotti, M. Alejandra
Copyright Year	2009
Abstract	This paper analyses acarological evidence from a 130-year-old forensic investigation. It was the first case in forensic acarology, i.e., the first case where mites provided substantial information to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI). In 1878, the mites found in the mummified body of a newborn baby girl in Paris, France, were studied by acarologist and forensic entomologist Jean Pierre Mégnin. Mégnin estimated around 2.4 million mites in the skull and identified them as Tyroglyphus longior (Gervais), a junior synonym of Tyrophagus longior. He suggested that the arrival of these mites at the corpse would have occurred by phoresy on carrier insects, roughly 5 months before the autopsy. There is no doubt about the identification of the mites, Mégnin was a highly respected acarologist. However, two main factors affecting the biology of Tyrophagus mites were not included in the original analysis. First, Mégnin stated that the mites were phoretic. However, he probably did not have access to information about the natural history of the species, because as a rule Tyrophagus mites are non-phoretic. Considering the omnipresence of Tyrophagus mites in soil, most likely the mites will have arrived almost immediately after death. Second, temperature was not taken into account during the estimations of the mite population growth rate. The new analysis is based on current knowledge of Tyrophagus biology and includes temperature, estimated following a handful of weather reports of the years 1877 and 1878. The new projections indicate that non-phoretic mites may have colonised the body just after death and the colony would have built up over 8 months, contrary to the 5 months proposed by Mégnin. This new lapse of time agrees with the PMI proposed by Brouardel: on 15 January 1878 he postulated the death of the newborn to have occurred some 8 months before the autopsy.
Starting Page	37
Ending Page	44
Page Count	8
File Format	PDF
ISSN	01688162
Journal	Experimental & Applied Acarology
Volume Number	49
Issue Number	1-2
e-ISSN	15729702
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2009-06-26
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Tyrophagus Tyroglyphus Mite PMI Forensic Forensic acarology Life Sciences Animal Ecology Entomology Animal Genetics and Genomics Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology Medicine Insect Science

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