Talk:Environmental effects on forensic entomology

(Redirected from Talk:External Effects on Forensic Entomology)
Latest comment: 16 years ago by Antarcticgecko in topic Peer Review

This is a great article. It is very interesting and I like how you used different evidence to make myself as the reader more intense. I personally don’t have any negative critiques because it was so well put together. Form time to time I would find something that was unclear but then it was followed by an exclamation. (Lice2008 (talk) 16:59, 18 April 2008 (UTC))Reply

I agree with Jdpage when they say that their not for sure if it could stand alone. The information does not seem to hold its own. I would like to see more information. For example, it states, "there are exceptional species that prefer these conditions." I want to know what species. I think the article is pretty good but I would love to see the topic dove into instead of just skimming the surface. Stop playing with my emotions. MrBryant44 (talk) 06:54, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This article is pretty good but i'm not sure if it could stand alone or not also you could have included the formula to solve degree days and shown some of the charts to show the min. and max. threshold of some insects. Calliphoridae is linked but i think you should have also linked Chrysonoma Rufifaces also. Jdpage (talk) 23:21, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This is a good topic. I think that you could add some actual cases where a body had been moved and the geographical distribution was the determining factor. I remember one talked about in class and ended up helping solve a case. (June21st86 (talk) 23:13, 17 April 2008 (UTC))Reply

I think this could be a really great article but needs a lot more information. For example under climate there could be more detail about the effects of the sun on the body. Other weather effects could also be added to the climate section. Other than that it is a good article.--Lmconine168 (talk) 21:50, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

There needs to be more added to this article, the grading rubric asks for 10 paragraphs at least, so for your own sake as well as whoever reads it, add more. Lauren Kalns (talk) 02:27, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

There is a wealth of information out there about this topic. I think that more information could be added in order to make it a little more informative. Also, adding a citation at the bottom for Megnin's book would probably be a good idea. Overall, very good. Even though it's a little short, it's very too the point. Good job! Labright (talk) 17:51, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I think that this article is great. I think though that you should add in a little bit more information. I think there needs to be more research done on this topic. I base this on the fact that I do not think others could get adequate information from this artcle. The idea is there it just needs to be expanded on a bit. I think you should use some of the information in class in this article as well. The topic is, however, interesting.Megalatta (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 17:04, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply


I enjoyed this article. It managed to condense a good amount of information into a readable article. There might be a few parts where a little more length would have improved it, however. I would have liked to have seen a longer intro possibly. Also, I'm not sure it's necessary to include a definition for forensic entomology, since most people will find this article as a link from the forensic entomology page. Then again, it won't hurt to keep it just in case. The other thing I saw was that you said "bodies exposed in open areas with large amounts of sunlight will heat up giving the insects a warmer area to develop, and increasing their development time." Maybe I'm misinterpreting that sentence, but shouldn't that result in a quicker development, and therefor a decrease in development time? Besides that, I saw a few awkward sentences but I cleaned most of them up. Just minor stuff. All in all, a good article. --Tipitow88 (talk) 07:17, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I would have liked to see more mention of which class of insects that preferred rainy and humid environments to those that liked dry warm environments in the topic of Moisture Levels. However, after reading on I did see it slightly covered in Geopgraphical distribution. So all in all, this was an interesting subject. Karmijo37, April 15th, 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Karmijo37 (talkcontribs) 20:42, 15 April 2008 (UTC) This is a fantasic article. I feel as though that it should have a better introduction and a bit more information in the body paragraph. Good Luck with the assignment!!! Megan(talk) —Preceding comment was added at 21:09, 9 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Very nice, "too the point" article. The only qualms I have with it are that it's a little too concise, perhaps an inclusion under the first section of an example of how moisture or dryness affect growth. I'm sure there are several publications out there with these findings. Otherwise, good job! 165.91.58.67 (talk) 00:05, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This is a very "primitive" article... but I love it. It is important that there be information covering the basics. When I started studying Forensinc Entomology I wanted to know the basic parts and highlights of the field and could not find it. I just wish this article was up 3 months ago. Good job!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ctmfc (talkcontribs) 14:17, 8 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Hey guys -- just a suggestion, but you might consider changing your title to "Environmental Effects on Forensic Evidence" or something like that ... I had to read your outline before I could figure out what the topic was. Kayla foster (talk) 18:06, 20 March 2008 (UTC)Reply


I agree with changing the title, but I don't really know how to do that. Do I just change the title from the link?Sasquash128 (talk) 01:08, 27 March 2008 (UTC)sasquash128Reply

To change the title, use the move tab at the top. This will allow you to change the title and give a reason for the change. Also, you should fix your citations so that each resource gets listed only once. Look at some of the other pages to find out how this is done. Colstewart71639 (talk) 23:06, 6 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Yall might want to consider linking threshold temperature description to the description from the group that did Insect development during morgue storage and autopsy procedures because its a little more detailed and would better help with the section on degree days. Mikearq (talk) 23:50, 7 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Hey guys, I see that others have already suggested changing the title into something more environmental - I strongly agree. Also, regarding Threshold Temperatures under Degree days, the bold format with one line under it is awkward formatting. Perhaps just think about making it part of the previous paragraph - if not, add more information. One more thing, I really think that your article can be easily linked to other articles regarding evidence gathering and forensic entomology. Great job and good luck. --Gdespejo (talk) 04:15, 9 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

It's a great article. Here are some minor suggestions: Since we learned in class that climate has the GREATEST influence on insects, I think the reader should understand the magnitude of this external effect. Jbratz (talk) 22:14, 9 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Also should you discuss the sunlight effect on feeding for certain species? Jbratz (talk) 22:17, 9 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

You may want to revisit your Degree Day formula, because it assumes that the value for #days is 1, when it's possible that it may be less than one (e.g. A body found at noon has only acquired 12 hours rather than a full day, and the formula would change to

(average temperature - minimum threshold) 0.5 days = ADD

Just a thought. On the whole, you have a great article here. Good work. Noromaru (talk) 03:46, 11 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Very nice article! Just one minor suggestion; under Moisture Levels you mention that "...there are exceptional species that prefer these conditions." -- I'd love to be able to see which species those are! --Moosenik (talk) 21:26, 12 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I really liked the article, but the thing that stood out to me was that it seemed more like a collection of interesting facts than an article. It could use some transitions to help it flow together as a piece. In addition, there are some other factors that can be considered that affect the insect colonization. Ngjon87 (talk) 23:49, 13 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This is a well written article, but it seems to be very cut and dry. If you broke up your paragraphs a bit and included some images, that would really make this article stand out. Also there needs to be another reference. Foxracer11373 (talk) 02:28, 14 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This is a great article. It is very concise but informative. There are a lot of links which is good, so people can look at other pages that are somewhat related to the topic. Really good paper. Very easy to understand for people that may not know anything about the topic. (Medillar (talk) 22:32, 14 April 2008 (UTC))Reply

I definetly agree with some of our fellow classmates that this is a great article but it could be more cohesive. The body of the article doesn't flow together quite as well, which makes it confusing and hard to understand the relationship between variables for non-entomology people. But the information present is very helpful in understanding how forensic entomology affects the world around us!--Cal101387 (talk) 06:10, 15 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This article is a difficult read. It seems fairly disorganized, which makes it not flow very well. It would be great to have some specific insect references in the climate section. Without them, the article does not seem much like an entomology article. Pictures would also be great. This is the perfect article for some gruesome environmentally effected bodies. Lastly the sentence, "Rain and humidity levels can affect the time for insect development depending on the amount of rainfall and humidity in the area where the body is found," sounds a little off to me. Maybe it's just me, but is it necessary to have rainfall and humidity twice in that sentence? Pinksugar85 (talk) 02:17, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

The article was well written and informative. One aspect of the enviornment we noticed that was required in forensics is that the weather data used for a crime scene must be from a certified weather station or a certified independent satation. Not only would this be a good additional section to your article but it would also tie it into the fornsic part more. cinco0513 —Preceding comment was added at 16:12, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Peer Review

edit

Informative Article! Kind of short though. You have many venues to discuss further in depth yet you dont explore that, its very straight to the point. When you discuss climatic effects upon PMI, you could discuss the type of insects that favor these things. Such as when you talk about rain and it dropping the temperature, you say that some insects are adapted to overcome this, you have an opportunity to discuss those insects. 74.192.211.233 (talk) 14:04, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply



Really liked this article because it was different and showed another aspect to forensic entomology, not just the bug and death side. I did notice that the degree day formula odesn't have multilication by a unit of time at te end so you'll probably want to correct that. Other than that I enjoyed this article and alos liked how it was to the point. -Lauren —Preceding unsigned comment added by Runwild2006 (talkcontribs) 17:39, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Howdy! After reading over your article, I wanted to tell you all that it was very helpful and informative on an extensive range of topics within forensic entomology. It was short, concise, and to the point, which is ideal for this sort of writing. However, I felt that I should remind you that it also never hurts to elaborate on some of your broader topics (for instance, go into further detail about why/how climate factors influence insect development). I also have a few other suggestions that I think will really help bring your article together: You might want to consider changing, in the first sentence of the sub-section titled, "Moisture levels," the second use of the words "rainfall and humidity" to either "each" or "both" as this would make the sentence sound much less repetitive. Also, at the end of the third sentence of that sub-section, I would think about adding the words "which is often typically the case in the warmer southern United States." Doing so would greatly smooth out the transition from that sentence to the next one. In the section labeled, "Degree Days" you might want to change the words, "...calculation of a degree day," to "calculation of the number of accumulated degree days," and then since you've done that, I'd then add "x (multiplied by) # of days" to the end of your degree day calculation. Also, you should really add a sub-section under "Degree Days" on degree hours since that is among the most used increments of time in P.M.I. determination. Lastly, I'd like to suggest that the first paragraph of your "Geographic distribution" section be turned into its own sub-section or even full section labeled "Faunal Succession" since it has very little to do with the section it's currently located in. Well that's all I have for you as of now, but I hope you find my comments of some help. Thanks and Gig'em! Lancecameron (talk) 17:02, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This is a good, fairly easy to read article. There were some grammatical errors, so I changed all of the ones I picked up on (mainly missing commas). You might also check on the usages of affect and effect. I felt that they were switched back and forth, and I'm not sure they were always used in the correct context (but I'm not certain). I noticed that the ADD formula didn't have unit of time. If it was for more than one day, the formula won't work, so I would suggest changing that. Annemarye (talk) 17:36, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Quite informative article! One possible enhancement that I noticed would be to provide the degree day formula in a graphic (perhaps with a chart-based example) to make it more readable. Also, our assignment article says that “For this assignment, you will need to include AT LEAST three (3) primary and three (3) secondary articles." This one seems to only have 4 sources overall so you may use that opportunity to expand the document.Catgirl357 (talk) 17:11, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Good topic, but there seemed to be a lack in information. A little more information about each category would have helped, such as formulas, and tables.§Cellimj (talk) 21:18, 16 April 2008 (UTC) cellimjReply

I think the article was well written. It was easy to read and comprehend for the most part, but I feel that a couple of the topics could have been elaborated on more making it a little easier to understand the concepts of the topics. Pns2010 (talk) 22:14, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This article is very short and choppy. I think that as a group you tried to stretch things out by adding spaces so you could reach the ten paragraphs minimum requirement. I also think that the article is not necessarily a real importance to Forensic Entomology and I think it would be better if it were merged with another article. By merging it with something else it will make each aspect of your article more important and easier to find for someone who may be looking for these specific topics.Thom2577 (talk) 00:48, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I agree that the article is kind of choppy. It seems sporadic and there isn't a lot of elaboration. For degree days maybe you could put some examples, like we had to do for our test and homework. You could show how entomologists actually use calculations of degree days. Good job so far but I feel like it still needs some more work. Kjw15 (talk) 06:31, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This article seems kind of short an brief compared to the amount of time that this has been studied. I would suggest sourcing some more recent studies in the body of the article to make it appear less dated. Some work on the cohesion needs to be done as well. Try to make it seem a little less like four or five people wrote it. Brevity has it's benefits and it works to a point here but some more of this information feels like it needs fleshing out. Wateka (talk) 19:48, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This article is very good, but very short; I think you could elaborate in a lot of ways. Instead of addressing general climate issues like "moisture", you could get into specifics like dewpoint and humidity. I'm sure this has already been suggested, but you haven't added it yet, so I'll suggest as well that you include a discussion of average degree days/hours, perhaps even including the formula. Also, discussing insect threshholds would be good, as well as unusual environments where you might have only 1 or two insect groups (like sub-zero temps. where mites are pretty much the only thing alive). I think a lot more could be said about this, but what you do have is very well-written.Jablan1 (talk) 22:36, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Jablan1Reply

I thought that this article was very informative. It allows readers to understand the importance that the environment plays when dealing with forensics. I might add an example case of how the environment has helped or hindered a case when dealing with insects. Also, you have described what happens during heat and sun, but what happens during intense cold, maybe elaborate on the different effects each climate would have. Someone who does not have a science or entomology background my not understand. Other than that I think the article was well written. JessicaD128 (talk) 23:51, 17 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I thought this was a very interesting choice for an article. I do agree with some of my classmates in that this article is a little short in choppy. I think it would be very beneficial to do additional research and length the article and make it more fluent. I also think that y'all could elaborate a little more on degree days. Also, i think you should mention that there are not just degree days, but also degree hours or even minutes. Aside from that I enjoyed the article! Good Job!--Dmhenry1216 (talk) 00:01, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

The article addresses a very interesting topic, but it is definetly lacking in detail. All the sections could be elaborated on and perhaps examples given of when there effects have changed certain cases and studies. I think there could have been alot more written on the topic, but it was a very good choice of topic.Bigjbang79 (talk) 00:28, 18 April 2008 (UTC)bigjbang79Reply

You guys should consider adding the formula on degree days and degree hours. Try giving an example on a case and how they needed to use the degree days on how to find the PMI. Try explaing the whole concept of PMI on how it's based on the fact that insects are temperature dependedt. This article needs a little more work before being turned in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Melgo87 (talkcontribs) 02:21, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I think your paper was very good and gave a lot of detail information about how that wheather affects PMI. Although while reading your paper I was looking for more pictures of bodies in those in different climates.165.91.174.157 (talk) 14:31, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply


This topic is really interesting, but I feel that the article may be too concise. It might be better if you talk about cases that were affected by the different environmental factors you've listed. Perhaps, past or current researches that have conducted studies involving the effects of environmental factors would be nice. You may consider linking your article to insect development during storage. I think you did a good job explaining the concepts of degree days and threshold temperature in the climate measurement section. I think that people who didn't know much about them would have a pretty good understanding after reading that section.Best js 2007 (talk) 14:38, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This article is a very interesting topic but i think it needs more examples of how these factors effect the case. Maybe put some cases in which moisture level or body of water played a key role in determining PMI. As is i would suggest merging it with the main forensic entomology page because as it is written know i don't think it will stand alone.--Escaladebball29 (talk) 16:28, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Good stuff, but it seems too short for the size of this topic. You may want to consider adding more case studies or information from peer reviewed journals to give the reader a better idea of how paramount this is to the entire field. Link some more as well, the average reader will probably not understand some forensics terminology and will need to look them up. Antarcticgecko (talk) 17:52, 18 April 2008 (UTC)Reply