Mitochondrial DNA of two forensically important species of Chrysomya (Diptera: Calliphoridae) from India

Morphological identification of the immature stages of blow flies is difficult especially when only fragmented specimens are found. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) gene sequence data coupled with its phylogenetic analysis are a quick technique in such cases. Hence, the partial sequence of this gene followed by its parsimony analysis was tested for the identification of two species of Chrysomya, i.e. C. rufifacies (Macquart) and C. megacephala (Fabricius) commonly found associated with cadavers from India. An attempt has also been made to assess the intraspecific and geographical variations. The intraspecific variation was found to be C.megacephala samples but not so in C. rufifacies. These two species were found to be monophyletic and were correctly identified. The 480bp COI region was found to be good enough to distinguish these.