Temperature of maggot masses
Redrawn from: Rodriguez, WC. and Bass, WM. (1985). Decomposition of buried bodies and methods that may aid in their location. Journal of Forensic Sciences 30: 836-852
The intense activity of foraging maggots increases the temperature of a corpse, sometimes up to 53 celsius. This speeds up the process of decay, as well as the speed of the maggots' digestion.
The individual members of a maggot mass also derive mutual benefit from living in each other's excrement. During rigor mortis, the tissues of a corpse are acidic because of lactic acid accumulation, and this makes them unpalatable to fly larvae. However, the larvae excrete ammonia, which is alkaline, neutralising the acid and eventually making the corpse alkaline. Maggots en masse therefore assist each other by mutual excretion of ammonia, mutual secretion of digestive enzymes, and mutual generation of heat.
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