MEANING:

Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology. At some 1.3 million described species, insects account for more than two-thirds of all known organisms,date back some 400 million years, and have many kinds of interactions with humans and other forms of life on earth. It is a specialty within the field of biology. Though technically incorrect, the definition is sometimes widened to include the study of terrestrial animals in other arthropod groups or other phyla, such as arachnids, myriapods, earthworms, and slugs.

IDENTIFICATION OF INSECTS:

Most insects can easily be recognized to order, such as Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants) or Coleoptera (beetles). However, insects other than Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are typically identifiable to genus or species only through the use of Identification keys and Monographs. Because the class Insecta contains a very large number of species (over 330,000 species of beetles alone) and the characters separating them are unfamiliar, and often subtle (or invisible without a microscope), this is often very difficult even for a specialist.
Insect identification is an increasingly common hobby, with butterflies and dragonflies being the most popular.

TAXONOMIC SPECIALIZATION:

Many entomologists specialize in a single order or even a family of insects, and a number of these subspecialties are given their own informal names, typically (but not always) derived from the scientific name of the group:

Apiology (or melittology) - bees

Coleopterology - beetles

Dipterology - flies

Hemipterology - true bugs

Lepidopterology - moths and butterflies

Myrmecology - ants

Orthopterology - grasshoppers, crickets, etc.

Trichopterology - caddis flies

FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGY:

Forensic entomology is the pie and study of insect and other arthropod biology to criminal matters. Forensic entomology is primarily associated with death investigations; however, it may also be used to detect drugs and poisons, determine the location of an incident, detect the length of a period of neglect in the elderly or children, and find the presence and time of the infliction of wounds. Forensic entomology can be divided into three subfields: urban, stored-product and medico-legal/medico-criminal entomology.

FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGY SUBFIELDS:

Urban forensic entomology:

Urban forensic entomology typically concerns pest infestations in buildings or gardens that may be the basis of litigation between private parties and service providers such as landlords or exterminators. Urban forensic entomology studies may also indicate the appropriateness of certain pesticide treatments and may also be used in stored products cases where it can help to determine chain of custody, when all points of possible infestation are examined in order to determine who is at fault.

Stored-product forensic entomology:

Stored-product forensic entomology is often used in litigation over infestation or contamination of commercially distributed foods by insects.

Medico-legal forensic entomology:

Medicolegal forensic entomology covers evidence that may be gathered through arthropod studies at events such as murder, suicide, rape, physical abuse and contraband trafficking.In murder investigations it deals with which insects lay eggs when and where, and in what order they appear in dead bodies. This can be helpful in determining a post mortem interval (PMI) and location of a death in question. Since many insects exhibit a degree of endemism (occurring only in certain places), or have a well-defined phenology (active only at a certain season, or time of day), their presence in association with other evidence can demonstrate potential links to times and locations where other events may have occurred (e.g., an Ohio man who claimed to have been in Ohio on the date his wife and children were murdered in California was found to have grasshoppers and other nocturnal insects from the west on his car grille, indicating that the car had been driven at night to the western US, and he was subsequently convicted.

Another area covered by medicolegal forensic entomology is the relatively new field of entomotoxicology. This particular branch involves the utilization of entomological specimens found at a scene in order to test for different drugs that may have possibly played a role in the death of the victim.