Diversity and Abundance of Blow Flies during the Dry Season in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Blow flies are one of the first insect colonizers of deceased bodies and they have been utilized in time-since-death estimations globally. Owing to the lack of current data on forensically important blow flies in Edo State, the objective of this paper was to assess the diversity and abundance of blow flies during the dry season in Ovia north-east Local Government Area of Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria using appropriate standard procedures including baited bottle traps. Data obtained showed that a total of 4,398 adult blow flies comprising Chrysomya megacephala, Chrysomya albiceps, Hemipyrellia fernandica, and Lucilia spp. were captured and collected from the traps. Chrysomya megacephala (54.87%) was the most abundant followed by Ch. albiceps (40.65%), Lucilia spp. (4.46%) and H. fernandica (0.02%). A female-biased sex ratio was evident in the blow fly individuals across all species except H. fernandica where only one individual was collected. This study revealed that in the dry season, Ch. megacephala, Ch. albiceps, H. fernandica, and Lucilia spp. are the blow flies that can potentially be used in time-since-death estimations in the Ovia north-east area of Benin City, Edo State. These findings, coupled with the established behaviour of these blow fly species breeding on deceased human and/or animal bodies in Nigeria, validate the effectiveness of baited bottle traps for preliminary surveys of early colonizing sarcosaprophagous flies such as blow flies across diverse seasons and habitats.