Insects can provide clues in a variety of ways to assist in criminal investigations. The FTIR-PAS technique has been successfully used to assess the cuticular chemical profiles of insect samples from different groups and for several goals. However, until now, it has never been used to evaluate samples of forensic interest, despite providing faster results, compared to the methods currently used. In this study, mid-infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy was employed to assess the cuticular chemical profiles of different stages of development of the blow fly Chrysomya megacephala sampled from two distinct populations. The results showed that this technique enabled detection of significant differences between the main vibrational modes of the chemical bonds present in the cuticles of the two populations and the different stages of development of the fly. The method enables identification of the age of individuals collected at the crime scene, as well as the distinction of different populations. Therefore, this methodology could assist in forensic investigations, in both estimating the Postmortem Interval and determining the location where the crime occurred, or whether the body had suffered some type of translocation. The technique provides high reproducibility and fast analysis, so its application for analysis of C. megacephala is a viable option in forensic crime investigations.

昆虫可以以多种方式提供线索以协助进行刑事调查。FTIR-PAS技术已成功用于评估不同群体和几个目标的昆虫样品的表皮化学特征。但是，到目前为止，与目前使用的方法相比，尽管提供了更快的结果，但从未将其用于评估法医学感兴趣的样本。在这项研究中，采用中红外光声光谱技术评估了苍蝇金头Ch的不同发育阶段的表皮化学特征。从两个不同的人群中采样。结果表明，该技术能够检测两个种群的表皮中存在的化学键的主要振动模式与果蝇发育的不同阶段之间的显着差异。该方法使得能够识别在犯罪现场收集的个人的年龄以及区分不同人群。因此，这种方法可以协助法医调查，既可以估计死后的时间间隔，也可以确定犯罪发生的地点，或者尸体是否遭受某种类型的易位。该技术具有很高的重现性和快速的分析能力，因此在法医犯罪调查中将其用于巨大头孢菌的分析是一种可行的选择。