Current means of aging immature blow fly larvae include aging to the time it takes to reach a stage of development and do not provide a time to within the lengthier stages of post feeding and intra-puparial period. Hyperspectral remote sensing has been shown to increase precision in this method by aging to within stages. However, development rates of immature blow flies have been found to differ based on different food substrates and so the objective of this research was to investigate if hyperspectral measurements of post feeding Lucilia sericata also differ when raised on different food substrates.

Minimum development time differences within stages were observed between the meat types (pork/beef), but not the organ types (liver/heart). Daily hyperspectral measurements were conducted and a functional regression was applied to examine the main effects of meat and organ type on daily spectral measurements. The model examined post feeding larval spectral measurements of insects raised on beef liver alone, the effect of those raised on pork compared with those raised on beef, the effect of those raised on heart compared with those raised on liver and the interactional effect of those raised on pork heart compared with those raised on beef liver. The analyses indicated that the spectral measurements of post feeding L. sericata raised on pork and beef organs (liver and heart) are affected by the meat and organ type.