Minimum PMI (Period of Insect Activity)
Definition
The elapsed time since the first insects colonised the body. Because access may have been delayed, this is a lower bound on the true PMI, not the PMI itself. Also written mPMI or PMIMIN.
Related terms
- Access Interval
- Any period after death during which insects could not reach the body, whether through concealment, refrigeration, submersion, or wrapping. The access interval...
- Colonisation
- The event when gravid female blow flies (or other pioneer species) locate the body and deposit eggs or first-instar larvae. The entomological...
- Larval Age Method
- Estimating mPMI by identifying the oldest, most developed insect stage present, staging it against a developmental timeline corrected for local temperature, and...
- Postmortem Interval (PMI)
- The elapsed time since death. Entomological PMI estimation uses the developmental stage and known growth rates of insects colonising the body to...
- Succession Method
- Estimating elapsed time from the species assemblage on the body by matching it to a local succession sequence: a known ecological progression...
Explained in
- Estimating the Postmortem Interval: PrinciplesThe elapsed time since the first insects colonised the body. Because access may have been delayed, this is a lower bound on the true PMI, not the PMI itself. A...