A checklist of arthropods associated with pig carrion and human corpses insoutheastern Brazil

Necrophagous insects, mainly Diptera and Coleoptera, are attracted to speci fic stages of carcass decomposition, in a process of faunistic succession. They are very important in estimating the postmortem interval, the time int erval between the death and the discovery of the body. In studies done with pig carcasses exposed to natural conditions in an urban forest (Santa Gene bra Reservation), located in Campinas, State of Sao Paulo, southeastern Bra zil, 4 out of 36 families of insects collected - Calliphoridae, Sarcophagid ae, Muscidae (Diptera) and Dermestidae (Coleopter a) - were considered of f orensic importance, because several species were collected in large numbers both visiting and breeding in pig carcasses. Several species were also obs erved and collected oil human corpses at the Institute of Legal Medicine. T he species belonged to 17 different families, 6 being of forensic importanc e because they, were reared from human corpses or pig carcasses: Calliphori dae, Sarcophagidae, Muscidae, Piophilidae (Diptera), Dermestidae, Silphidae and Cleridae (Coleoptera). The most important species were: Diptera - Chry somya albiceps, Chrysomya putoria, Hemilucilia segmentaria, Hemilucilia sem idiaphana (Calliphoridae), Pattonella intermutans (Sarcophagidae), Ophyra c halcogaster (Muscidae), Piophila casei (Piophilidae); Coleoptera - Dermeste s maculatus (Dermestidae), Oxyletrum disciolle (Silphidae) and Necrobia ruf ipes (Cleridae).