Results Composition and abundance of insects Carcass mass had a highly significant effect on the number of adult or larval taxa in both major carrion insect orders (adult Diptera, F 3,14 = 20.5, P < 0.01; larval Diptera, F 3,14 = 5.3, P = 0.01; adult Coleoptera, F 3,14 = 14.5, P < 0.01; larval Coleoptera, F 3,14 = 9.7, P < 0.01), with higher number of taxa on larger carcasses (Fig. 1 ).
In particular, larger carcasses had higher number of late-arriving taxa, as for example beetles of the families Cleridae or Nitidulidae, which were collected on almost all medium/large and large carcasses, but were found on a very few small and medium pigs (Tables 1 – 2 ). Carcass clothing revealed a significant effect on the number of taxa of adult or larval Diptera (adult Diptera, F 1,14 = 13.3, P < 0.01; larval Diptera, F 1,14 = 6.9, P = 0.02), a close-to-significant effect on the number of taxa of adult Coleoptera ( F 1,14 = 2.5, P = 0.14), and no significant effect on the number of taxa of larval Coleoptera ( F 1,14 = 1.0, P = 0.33).
maxillosus and a near-significant effect in the case of N. violacea (Table 3 ).