Megaselia scalaris (Loew) (Diptera: Phoridae) is a cosmopolitan scuttle fly of medical and forensic importance. This
species is generally small, humpbacked and is a prominent decomposer of corpses indoors. Taxonomically, adult sexes
can be distinguished based on the characteristics of the terminal segments of the abdomen. In this report, the terminalia
of adult male and female M. scalaris were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The terminal segment
of an adult female is less complex compared to male, consisting of an ovipositor and cerci. In male, the hypopygium
consists of epandrium, hypandrium, anal tube and penis complex. A pair of long and feathered setae was attached to the
tip of the anal tube and tapered. The application of SEM to identify this species isuseful and can be expanded to other
species in this fly group.
Penentuan kumpulan bangsa dalam analisis rambut pada kepala adalah satu cabaran yang dihadapi dalam analisis forensik untuk mengenal pasti mangsa, suspek dan tempat kejadian jenayah. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti perbezaan antara dua kaum terbesar di Malaysia iaitu Melayu dan Cina melalui penelitian ciri-ciri rambut. Ini termasuklah ciri umum rambut, corak kutikel, warna, taburan pigmen kortek dan ciri medula – jenis, ketebalan dan indeks medula. Kajian ini telah dijalankan dengan menggunakan mikroskop cahaya dan terdiri daripada lima langkah iaitu penyediaan sampel, penelitian ciri umum rambut, penyediaan dan penelitian slaid acuan corak sisik kutikel, slaid kortek serta medula. Hasil daripada kajian in mendapati bahawa kebanyakan Melayu mempunyai warna pigmen yang bercoklat gelap manakala Cina mempunyai pigmen coklat cerah. Kami juga mendapati bahawa ketebalan medula boleh juga digunakan untuk membezakan antara Melayu dan Cina di mana nilai purata bagi Melayu dan Cina masing-masing adalah 7.59 ± 1.45 μm dan 9.12 ± 1.85 μm. Nilai purata indeks medula bagi Melayu dan Cina pula adalah 0.17 ± 0.02 μm dan 0.18 ± 0.02 μm masing-masing. Walaupun begitu, ciri-ciri seperti tekstur, ketebalan rambut, corak sisik kutikel, taburan pigmen dan jenis medula pula menunjukkan perbezaan yang tidak ketara antara Melayu dan Cina. Kesimpulannya, kajian ini telah menunjukkan bahawa warna pigmen, ketebalan medula dan indeks medula adalah ciri-ciri penting yang boleh digunakan untuk menentukan bangsa.
Identifi cation of unknown suspect through bite marks has always been challenging. Narrowing list of suspects through sex and race markers is always recommend but rarely utilized due to limited publication in this area. Thus, this preliminary research was aimed to study the difference of bite mark made on dental wax between sex and race. A sample size of 40 UKM undergraduates comprising of Malay (male = 10, female = 10) and Chinese (male = 10, female = 10) were used in this study. Bite mark of subject was obtained through dental wax, digitally scanned and analyzed using Image-J software. Parameters measured were anterior teeth size, intercanine width and anterior teeth relative rotation. Result indicated that mandible left canine tooth size had signifi cant sexual dimorphism (p < 0.05) in differentiating sex. The means for male and female measured were 4.63 ± 1.05 mm and 5.35 ± 0.87 mm respectively. In addition to the result, tooth size of maxillary left canine and mandible left lateral incisor were signifi cantly different (p < 0.05) between races. Means for mandible left canine Malay and Chinese were 5.27 ± 1.01 mm and 4.50 ± 1.22 mm respectively. Furthermore, left lateral incisor mandible had means of 5.15 ± 0.87 mm and 4.60 ± 0.74 mm for Malay and Chinese respectively. Unfortunately, there were no signifi cant differences for intercanine width and anterior teeth relative rotation between the two major races in Malaysia. In conclusion, this research has demonstrated the possibility of using tooth size of mandible left canine, maxillary left canine and mandible left lateral discriminate sex and race.