It has a bluish-green appearance, similar to other Calliphoridae and is found in multiple geographic locations with a preference for colder regions.

Belonging to the family Calliphoridae, it has been shown to have forensically relevant implications due to its appearance on carrion.

C. mortuorum is a deep blue-green shining metallic fly with a yellowish face and jowls, possessing a body length of 8–15 mm.

[1] As do most blow flies, or members of the family Calliphoridae, C. mortuorum has a life cycle that includes an egg stage, three larval instars, and a pupal form before becoming an adult, or imago.

[3] Insects with this kind of life cycle have holometabolous development, meaning that the larval stage looks completely different from the adult.

Plenty of variables play into the use of insects in a criminal investigation, including temperature, certain chemicals, or location, but determining an arthropod's stage of development on a corpse proves to be an accurate technique in estimating a time of death.

Depending on certain variables, a forensic entomologist can pinpoint which stage of development a C. mortuorum is in, and how long it and the carcass it is feeding on have been there.

The population tends to locate itself in the Norway and Finland area and is much less popular in the United States or the Iberian Peninsula.

[9] A current case located in Norway dealt with a deceased woman containing dead Cynomya mortuorum larvae in her oral cavity.

Nozinan was found at extreme levels in the woman's blood, and to further prove the suicide, there were pills of this nature located directly next to the body.

Forensic entomologists found that the eggs must have been laid in early October, since in Norway during December months, the temperature would have been too cold to sustain the larvae.

Using morphological methods to identify differences between such closely related species can often be very difficult, especially if the fly or larvae has been poorly preserved.

In Europe and parts of the U.S., a study has been conducted collecting DNA sequence data over a range of commonly encountered forensically important Calliphoridae species.

High quality DNA was extracted from these flies, and the genetic marker used in this study was the large sub-unit (lsu) ribosomal RNA gene.