Schuler Books has teamed up with the Lansing Community College Science Department to bring you Cafe Scientifique, a monthly science discussion group. Join LCC professors for an animated discussion of the important science issues of the day! This month;s topic is Creatures of Crime: The Role of Insects in Crime Scene Investigations, presented by Forensic Entomologist and MSU Professor Richard Merritt. Medicolegal forensic entomology deals with insect involvement in events surrounding felonies -- usually violent crimes such as murder, suicide and rape, but also involving cases of extreme neglect and abuse. Because insects and other arthropods have predictable life histories, habitats, known distributions, and developmental rates, they can provide important information about when, where and even how a particular crime occurred. Merritt will show some of the major insects involved in crime scene investigations, explain how to determine the PMI (the time between death and corpse discovery, which is referred to as the postmortem interval), and discuss some major criminal cases he has been involved with to assess the role of forensically important insects.