author(s)
Azim Rabbani and Raja M Zuha

abstract
The objective of this study was to compare the consistency of larval body length and cephalopharyngeal skeleton of third instar larvae, Hypopygiopsis violacea (Macquart) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) at 0, 7 and 14-day storage intervals. During third instar feeding stage, larvae were killed in hot water, preserved in 70% ethanol and body length was measured. Cephalopharyngeal skeleton was cleared using 10% KOH and mounted on slides using Euparal. Cephalopharyngeal skeleton of third instar H. violacea larvae were weakly correlated with their body length (p<0.05). Based on variance within-subjects, the mouthhook-dorsal cornua (MH-DC), mouth hook-ventral cornua (MH-VC) and anterior dorsal process-dorsal cornua (ADP-DC), exhibited more consistent measurement compared to body length. However, cephalopharyngeal skeleton length was influenced by prolonged storage in 70% ethanol (p<0.05) over 14 days. These findings show the potential of using cephalopharyngeal skeleton morphometry in minimum post mortem interval (mPMI) estimation by having more consistent growth parameters than larval body length.