Yves Braet

• DEA Environmental Management
• Technical Forensic Expert at National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology

Succession patterns of carrion insects on large mammal’s carrion has been widely studied, notably to estimate the post-mortem interval in forensic investigations as accurately as possible. However, little attention has been paid to the carrion insects living inside these bones once a carcass is skeletonized. One very recent study documented flies e...

Forest decline and dieback are growing phenomena worldwide, resulting in severe, large‐scale degradation of the canopy. This can profoundly alter the provision of trophic resources and microhabitats for canopy‐dwelling arthropods. In 2019, we assessed the effect of oak decline on the community of canopy‐dwelling Hymenoptera. We selected 21 oak stan...

1. Forest decline and dieback are growing phenomena worldwide, resulting in severe, large-scale degradation of the canopy. This can profoundly alter the provision of trophic resources and microhabitats for canopy-dwelling arthropods. 2. In 2019, we assessed the effect of oak decline on the community of canopy-dwelling Hymenoptera. We selected 21 o...

The iconic fly Thyreophora cynophila has long attracted the interest of entomologists but, despite its re-discovery in Spain and France, its biology is still poorly known. The larvae and puparium have been described in detail but their feeding habits on large carcasses remain largely unknown. Here, we took advantage of a carrion pile containing the...

Forensic entomology offers insects as physical evidence during legal procedures. Forensic entomologists have determined succession of arthropods on dead animals, but few published studies are available on necrophagous larvae collected on carcasses around the world. This study evaluated the diversity of arthropods associated with rat carcasses to id...

A new tribe of braconid wasps provisionally included in the Rhyssalinae, Laibaleini trib. nov., type genus Laibalea gen. nov. (type species Laibalea enigmatica sp. nov.), from Kenya and the Central African Republic, is described. A molecular dataset, with emphasis on basally derived taxa based on four gene fragments (28S D2–D3 expansion region, COI...

Egg mortality is one of the main factors affecting life history and conservation of oviparous species. A massive and cryptic colonisation of many leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) eggs is presented in the most important rookery for the species in Gabon. A total of 163 nests were exhumed at Kingere beach, revealing that only 16.7% of eggs pr...

The tribe Holcobraconini (Braconidae: Doryctinae) is a group of parasitoid wasps mainly found in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It contains seven genera (Holcobracon Cameron, Ivondrovia Shenefelt & Marsh, Liodoryctes Szépligeti, Monarea Szépligeti, Nervellius Roman, Odontobracon Cameron and Zombrus Marshall), most of which are c...

A new genus, Cerritulus gen. nov., with type species, C. forticrura sp. nov., are described from French Guiana based on a single specimen that is considerably distinct morphologically from all known Neotropical genera. The new genus is only partially similar to the enigmatic, monotypic Asian genera Ceylonspathius Belokobylskij and Termitospathius B...

Advances in taxonomic knowledge have enabled us to update our 2008 list of ant species collected in Pongara National Park, Gabon. We now recognise 111 described and six possible undescribed forms. These come from eight subfamilies, the most speciose of which are Formicines, 30, and Myrmicines, 64. From studying original descriptions, type specimens...

A revision of the Neotropical species of the braconid wasp genus Pedinotus Szépligeti and molecular characterization of some species based on the COI mitochondrial DNA gene are provided. Twenty four new species are described: P. avispas sp. nov., P. bororo sp. nov., P. botocudo sp. nov., P. brunniventris sp. nov., P. cerdai sp. nov., P. daedalus sp...

New taxa were found among the Braconidae collected during the “Our Planet Reviewed” mission in Papua New Guinea. We describe here several new species of Austroascogaster Kittel & Austin, 2014 (Cheloninae), Betylobracon Tobias, 1979, Gelasinibracon Quicke, 1989 (Braconinae), Jannya van Achterberg, 1995b (Rogadinae) and Mesocentrus Szépligeti, 1900 (...

Background Iridescent blue-green colours are exhibited by various organisms including several taxa in the Tachinidae (Diptera) with notable examples within the Afrotropical members of the genus Phorinia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830. The vivid colouration observed in life quickly fades to a dull golden-yellow when a specimen is dried. Although well known...

Phorinia sp. from Zambia, air dried

We report the first documented observations of predation on Dorylus (Anomma) congolensis Santschi, 1910 by the agamid lizard Agama agama (Linnaeus, 1758), the only reptile known to predate on this aggressive army ant. We also report two other observations of predation by Gabonese Agama agama on Dorylus sp. These observations confirm the extreme die...

Wasmannia auropunctata (Roger, 1863) is one of the most invasive ants in the world. Originally known from South America, we find it now almost on all continents. This dispersion is mainly favored by human activities. In Africa, it was reported from a few countries only. However it is likely to be occurring elsewhere. To help monitor its extension,...

This paper is freely available on the site of the Journal :-) Background The calliphorid Cynomya mortuorum (L., 1761) is a species of forensic interest, present mainly in the Palaearctic Region. Nearly nothing is known about its life history. New information We provide here the first data regarding pupal weight evolution during the pupal stage, f...

Raw Data for Fig 2

Raw Data for Fig.1a & 1b

The calliphorid Cynomya mortuorum (L., 1761) is a forensically important species mainly found in the Palearctic region. Knowledge about its biology and ecology is scarce. Thermal constants as well as developmental time were studied at constant and variable regimes of 5 average temperatures: 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 °C respectively. Total developmental...

[for the Book] The use of forensic entomology has become established as a global science. Recent efforts in the field bridge multiple disciplines including, but not limited to, microbiology, chemistry, genetics, and systematics as well as ecology and evolution. The first book of its kind, Forensic Entomology: International Dimensions and Frontiers...

Two new species of the genus Leptotrema van Achterberg, 1988 and one new genus of the Alysiinae from Mt Wilhelm, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea are described and illustrated. The distribution of the genus Leptotrema is extended to the Australasian region. Three new combinations are established Idiasta fulmeki (Fischer, 2010) comb. n. (=Microcras...

Four new species of Cheloninae wasps are described: Odontosphaeropyx bicoloratus Braet sp. nov. from Namibia and Tanzania, O. mkomaziensis Kittel sp. nov. from Tanzania, and Dentigaster ucayali Braet sp. nov. and Dentigaster giuglarisi Braet sp. nov. from French Guiana and Peru. Dentigaster warana Braet and Fretey, 1997 syn. nov. is recognised as a...

A second species of the rare genus Minanga has been discovered in Saül, French Guiana during a long term entomological survey. The identification key for all known species is updated. (available http://popups.ulg.ac.be/2030-6318/index.php?id=2861)

The “Société Entomologique Antilles-Guyane” (S.E.A.G.) has collected a specimen belonging to a new species of Paphanus van Achterberg & Riedel, 2009. The new taxon is described and included in the first identification key of this genus. One additional record of Nervellius philippus Braet, 2014 is given.

The genus Ecnomios Mason and the subfamilly Ecnomiinae is formally recorded from the Afrotropical area. One new species from Tanzania is described and a key of known species is given.

A short summary of my visit to the entomological collections of the Iziko South African Museum (Cape Town) is presented.

The “Société Entomologique Antilles-Guyane” (S.E.A.G.) has collected a specimen of Holcobraconini belonging to a new species of Nervellius Roman, 1924. The new taxon is described and included in a modified identification key of this genus. Additional distribution data about other Doryctinae species collected in French Guiana are given

The Microgastrinae genus Prasmodon is revised and the following 16 new species are described: erenadupontae and verhoogdenokus (authored by Braet and Fernández-Triana), and almasolisae, aureus, bobpoolei, bobrobbinsi, dondavisi, johnbrowni, masoni, mikepoguei, nixoni, paulgoldsteini, scottmilleri, silvatlanticus, subfuscus, and tijucaensis (authore...

Phormia regina (the black fly) is a common Holarctic blow fly species which serves as a primary indicator taxon to estimate minimal post mortem intervals. It is also a major research model in physiological and neurological studies on insect feeding. Previous studies have shown a sequence divergence of up to 4.3% in the mitochondrial COI gene betwee...

Fly larvae living on dead corpses can be used to estimate post-mortem intervals. The identification of these flies is decisive in forensic casework and can be facilitated by using DNA barcodes provided that a representative and comprehensive reference library of DNA barcodes is available. We constructed a local (Belgium and France) reference librar...

List of specimens used in this study, their feeding preferences, voucher number and origin, and GenBank accession numbers. Voucher numbers starting with MIC/INCC were sequenced in this study. – = data not available. Species of forensic interest are given in bold. For each specimen the fragment length used in the analysis [i.e., (mini)barcode or ent...

The identification of species of the forensically important genus Sarcophaga is very difficult and requires strong taxonomic expertise. In this study, we sequenced the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of 126 specimens of 56 W European Sarcophaga species and added GenBank data to our database to yield a total dataset of 270 CO...

Species of the fly genus Lucilia are commonly used in forensic investigations to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI). Two close-related species Lucilia caesar and L. illustris are difficult to identify. Previous studies showed that the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) marker could be used to identify many Lucilia species. Howev...

We revised the Euphorinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) collected in Reunion Island (Indian Ocean). To date, only Chrysopophthorus hungaricus (Kiss) was reported there. This catalogue is updated to a total of nine species, six of them being newly described: Centistes caloupile sp. nov., Cosmophorus merdiculus sp. nov., Leiophron sarahae sp. nov., Leiop...

Eight species of Cheloninae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) are newly described: Ascogaster kibalensis Braet sp. nov., Chelonus (Chelonus) mayi Braet & Rousse sp. nov., Chelonus (Microchelonus) madagasakarensis Braet & Rousse sp. nov., Chelonus (Microchelonus) matilei Braet & Rousse sp. nov. Chelonus (Microchelonus) merdicus Rousse & Braet sp. nov., Odon...

Two new species belonging to the enigmatic doryctine genus Evaniodes Szépligeti, 1901 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), E. palikuri Braet, Ceccarelli & Zaldívar-Riverón sp. nov. and E. wayampisi Braet, Ceccarelli & Zaldívar-Riverón sp. nov., are described from French Guiana. Two of the three previously described species of Evaniodes, E. areolatus Széplige...

Two new species, recently discovered in French Guiana, are described. Minanga angelus sp. n., is the second species from the New World and the first Neotropical species. Dentigaster brullei sp. n. is the seventh described species of the genus. Identifications keys for both genera are updated.

Two new species, recently discovered in French Guiana, are described. Minanga angelus sp. n., is the second species from the New World and the first Neotropical species. Dentigaster brullei sp. n. is the seventh described species of the genus. Identifications keys for both genera are updated.

Coelalysia nigriceps (Szépligeti, 1911) was reared as part of a study on insect scavengers in Cameroon. The nature of its possible host is discussed. Coelalysia maculipes (Cameron, 1912) is recognized as a new junior synonym of C. nigriceps. Alysia camerunensis Enderlein, 1912, and Coelalysia glossinophaga Turner, 1917, are removed from the synonym...

Accurate identification of an insect specimen is usually a crucial first step in a forensic entomological analysis because closely related carrion species may differ substantially in growth rate and diapause response. However, species-diagnostic anatomical characters are often difficult to use since 1) they are not known for most immature stages, 2...

Athacryvac gen. n. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Rogadinae) is described with two new species A. alternatus sp. n. (type species) and A. fuscatus

The first survey of ground ants revealed 5 subfamilies (one new for the country), 27 genus (seven news for the country) and 81 morpho-species (from which 61 have been identified resulting in 1 new for science and 36 new records for the country). More interests are needed to this field of research and area. See also : http://antsofafrica.org/ant_spe...

The standardized 'Ants of the Leaf Litter' protocol aims to facilitate the use of ground-foraging and litter-dwelling ants in biodiversity assessment and monitoring programs. It was initially developed to characterize assemblages from tropical rain forests and is based on two main techniques: Winkler extractions and pitfall traps. Here, we tested t...

A four months field survey combining several techniques has been conducted in the coastal zone, the savana, forest and mangrove of Pongara National Park (Gabon). This inventory has resulted in the collection of 144 ants species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) belonging to 8 subfamilies. Among them 110 are recorded for the first time in this country. The...

Zool. Med. Leiden 78 (22), 31.xii.2004: 337-344, figs 1-12.— ISSN 0024-0672. Two new species of the genus Pambolus Haliday, 1836, (P. leponcei spec. nov., and P. pilcomayensis spec. nov.; Braconidae: Pambolinae) from Argentina are described and illustrated.

The genus Stantonia Ashmead, 1904 is revised and an identification key for all the available described species is provided. Phylogenetic analyses including and excluding colour characters are presented and the results of various constrained analyses used to assess statistically the need for taxonomic changes. These tests lead to the recognition tha...

gen. nov. and other new taxa, with a study of the internal microsculpture of the ovipositor in the subfamily Orgilinae Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Zool. Med. Leiden 77 (6), 29.viii.2003: 127-152, figs 1-67.— ISSN 0024-0672. Y. Braet, Faculté Universitaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux, UER de Zoologie Générale et Appliquée, 2, Passag...

Ten new species of Braconidae (Hymenoptera) from French Guyana, Suriname and Panama are described and illustrated. Seven species of the genus Pambolus Haliday, 1836, (Pambolinae: P. pappi spec. nov., and P. rufus spec. nov. from French Guyana, P. granulatus spec. nov. from Suriname, P. duplotaeniatus spec. nov., P. hemitaeniatus spec. nov., P. micr...

One new monotypic genus of the subfamily Orgilinae Ashmead, 1900 (type species: D. morvanae spec. nov.), two new species of the genus Podorgilus van Achterberg, 1994 (P. nemorensis spec. nov. and P. luteus spec. nov.) and one new species of the genus Agathis Latreille, 1804 (A. depressifrons spec. nov.) are described. The internal microsculpture of...

From French Guyana four new genera of the subfamily Doryctinae Foerster, 1862 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) with six new species (Lamquetia gen. nov.; type species: L. rufa Braet & van Achterberg, spec. nov., L. marshi Braet & Barbalho, spec. nov.), Ondigus gen. nov. (type species: O. bicolor spec. nov.), Neostaphius gen. nov. (type species: N. striatu...

The genus Earinus Wesmael, 1837 (Braconidae: Agathidinae) is recorded for the first time from French Guiana by two new species: Earinus bourguignoni sp.n. and Earinus hubrechtae sp.n. A key for all neotropical species of Earinus is included. New data about species of Alabagrus and Marjoriella recorded in French Guiana are given.

Among the collected material from the Kaw Montains, French Guiana, a new species of the genus Exasticolus van Achterberg, 1979 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Homolobinae: E. thirionae spec. nov.) and two new species of the genus Orgilus Haliday, 1833 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Orgilinae: O. podus spec. nov. and O. quadricolor spec. nov.) were discovered....

Three genera of the subfamily Doryctinae Foerster, 1862 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) are treated and keyed: Ptesimogaster Marsh, 1965, Caingangia Marsh, 1993, and Leptodoryctes Barbalho & Penteado-Dias, 1999. The latter genus is characterised by the presence of an apical setal comb on the hind tibia. Two new genera are described: Ptesimogastroides gen...

Two new species of the genus Foenomorpha Szépligeti, 1904, are described (F. rufa spec. nov. from Brazil and F. senlura spec. nov. from French Guiana). A key to the known species is added and notes on the other two species are added. Foenomorpha filicornis (Cameron, 1887) is a new combination for Cenocoelius filicornis Cameron. An aberrant group of...

Using Malaise traps in several areas of French Guyana, we have collected twenty species belonging to the following genera: Deinodryinus, Dryinus, Gonadryinus, Neodryinus, Thaumatodryinus, Gonatopus (Hymenoptera: Dryinidae); Polistomorpha, Leucospis (Hymenoptera: Leucospidae); and Leptofoenus (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), respectively. Some of them a...

One new species belonging to the gneus Pseudorus Walker, 1851 (Diptera: Asilidae) is describe from French Guiana. Its colour pattern allows us to include it into a mimetic complex existing in the Amazonian area. This mimetic complex is illustrated and discussed here for the first time.

Eleven new species are described from Africa and included in the genus Trotricus: T bredoi sp.n., T. cryptus sp.n., T dewittei sp.n., T. flaviscapus sp.n., T. louwpenrithi sp.n., T. ocularis sp.n., T. partitus sp.n., T. segetophilus sp.n., T. sharkeyi sp.n., T. spatulatus sp.n., T. tricortus sp.n. With these discoveries the cladistic analysis of th...

Eleonoria gen. nov. (type species: E. mesembria spec. nov. from Malaysia; five additional species from Japan, China (including Taiwan), Philippines, and Indonesia (Halmahera) are included), Orgilonia pasohensis spec. nov. from Malaysia, Orgilus reclinatus spec. nov. from Congo, O. alboannulatus spec. nov., and O. brevicaudatus spec. nov., both from...