Zelus renardii, Kolenati, 1857

Zelus renardii View in CoL

is the only species of the genus that has been reported from Europe; it is endemic to Central and North America, from where it has been introduced in other parts of the world, most likely dispersed by human activities ( Pinzari et al., 2018). The species is considered as one of the Reduviidae with the biggest geographical expansion in the last years (Miralles-Ṅñez et al., 2021). In Europe, it was firstly reported from Greece ( Davranoglou, 2011) and then from Spain ( Baena & Torres, 2012; Vivas, 2012), where it has been reported from the provinces of Barcelona, Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, Almería, Málaga, Sevilla, Cádiz and Madrid ( Baena & Torres, 2012; Goula et al., 2019; Miralles-Ṅñez et al., 2021; Rodríguez Lozano et al., 2018; Vivas, 2012), being probably settled in a large part of the Iberian Peninsula ( Vivas, 2012) since it has been already reported from Southern Portugal ( van der Heyden & Grosso-Silva, 2020). It acts as an exotic invasive species because of being adaptable, highly dispersive and able to colonize new areas readily ( Davranoglou, 2011). Some bites on humans due to this species have been reported from Spain which may be because it is becoming more frequent, mainly in anthropic environments but also in agricultural ones (Miralles-Ṅñez et al., 2021). The pioneering nature of this species ( Weirauch et al., 2012), its dispersal more than likely by human activities and its tolerance to adverse conditions, such as high temperature, could create direct competition with other indigenous reduviids of the Palaearctic region ( Pinzari et al., 2018) and it can go hand in hand, and even increase, with global warming.

Due to the observed predaceous behaviour of this species on Dermestidae larvae, its role as necrophilous within the entomosarcosaprophagous fauna becomes obvious. Zelus renardii is considered a generalist predator, the adults can feed on almost any arthropod they can catch ( Pinzari et al., 2018). Although it is not surprising due to its generalist nature as a predator, as far as we know Dermestidae have never been reported as prey for Z. renardii ; thus, the list of species on which it can feed is enlarged. The interest of such predation, from a forensic perspective, deals with the potential capacity of removing a big amount of Dermestidae larvae from the corpse which can modify the faunal succession and the decomposition itself, even compromising the estimation of minimum PMI when considering the entomological evidence, as it occurs in the case of Nasonia vitripennis (Walker, 1836) ( Hymenoptera : Pteromalidae ) affecting Diptera larvae ( Charabizde & Hedouin, 2014).

Zelus renardii had not previously been reported from a corpse; thus, this is the first forensic case on record it is involved in. Our finding extends the global list of insects of forensic importance, emphasizing the need to identify all entomological evidence in forensic practice since all species can provide information related to the case.