Maggot

A 'maggot' is the larval stage of the fly life cycle, famous for eating decomposing flesh.

Some types of maggots found on corpses can be of great use to forensic scientists. By their stage of development, these maggots can be used to give an indication of the time elapsed since death, as well as the place the organism died.

Maggots are classified using "instar" stages. An instar I is about 2-5 mm long; instar II 6-14 mm; instar III 15-20 mm. These correspond to an age of 2-3 days, 3-4 days, and 4-6 days (for average house flies or bottle flies) since the eggs were laid. Some forensic scientists use this data to determine the approximate time of death of a human body.