The Effect of Nicotine and Cotinine on the Development of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Hodges, Elise; Fungo, Tessa E.; Gautham, FNU; Bowlin, Hannah D.

Undergraduate Publication:
The Effect of Nicotine and Cotinine on the Development of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

dc.contributor.author	Hodges, Elise
dc.contributor.author	Fungo, Tessa E.
dc.contributor.author	Gautham, FNU
dc.contributor.author	Bowlin, Hannah D.
dc.date.accessioned	2019-04-29T22:52:21Z
dc.date.accessioned	2021-04-14T14:56:21Z
dc.date.available	2019-04-29T22:52:21Z
dc.date.available	2021-04-14T14:56:21Z
dc.date.issued	3/26/19
dc.description.abstract	Nicotine, readily available in electronic nicotine delivery systems, poses a lethal threat as it is easily accessible and highly toxic in its liquid form. Seventy-five percent of nicotine is metabolized into cotinine, and with the growing prevalence of nicotine-related deaths comes the increased possibility of finding nicotine or cotinine in the tissues of a corpse and thus the possibility of distorting the postmortem interval (PMI). Through entomotoxicology, the study of how drugs and toxins influence the development of insects present on a decomposing body, this experiment aimed to determine if varying levels of nicotine and cotinine affect the development of the forensically important Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius) [Diptera: Calliphoridae]. In this experiment, C. macellaria maggots were reared on seven varying concentrations of nicotine and cotinine and were sampled every eight hours. Length, weight and accumulated degree hours were then measured or determined. Our study found that maggots reared on lethal nicotine and lethal cotinine showed a significant decrease in length and weight as well as a delay in development time for the second instar life stage. These results suggest a relationship between high concentrations of nicotine and cotinine and the development of C. macellaria, which could greatly affect PMI estimations.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	Biography: Elise Hodges, Tessa Fungo, Gautham, and Hannah Bowlin are undergraduate honor’s students who conducted a research project in the field of forensic entomology as a part of Dr. Heather Ketchum’s perspectives course, “Bugs, Thugs, and Science” in fall 2018.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	University Libraries Undergraduate Research Award	en_US
dc.description.undergraduate	undergraduate
dc.format.extent	24 pages
dc.format.extent	784,564 bytes
dc.format.medium	application.pdf
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/11244.46/1536
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.relation.requires	Adobe Acrobat Reader
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
dc.subject	University Libraries Undergraduate Research Award
dc.title	The Effect of Nicotine and Cotinine on the Development of Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)
dc.type	Article
dspace.entity.type	UndPublication