body parts with high temperatures have the greatest tissue loss from immense maggot masses. there can be extensive tissue loss in a morgue by how many maggots are present on the body and how long the body is kept in the morgue. when calculating the pmi at the autopsy, it is important to note the temperatures of the maggot masses when gathering the maggots from the body. the temperature of maggot masses in a cooler slowly decreases, which gives the minimal temperature the maggots can encounter. there may be little or no effect of the lower temperatures on insect development if the maggot mass was well established before placing the body in the cooler. in calculating the degree-days and the life cycle from one stage to another, it is important to note how many maggots are on the body, what type of species it is due to different developmental thresholds, and the temperature and time in the cooler. for instance, the development of bluebottle blowflies is suspended at 3 °c, the common temperature of a morgue’s cold storage chamber.