FOOD DEGRADATION AS A MECHANISM OF INTRASPECIFIC COMPETITION AMONG THE LARVAE OF SECONDARY STORED-PRODUCT PESTS

Develops a model describing the growth, development and survival of a cohort of stored product larvae from egg hatch to pupation. Growth and survival rates are assumed to depend only on energy uptake, which in turn depends both on the quantity and quality of the food medium. Predictions of this model are compared with experimental observations described and modelled by Gordon et al. (1988) for almond moth Cadra cautella (see 89L/02786). At low initial densities the current model behaves in a way that is essentially indistinguishable both from the experimental observations and the predictions of their model. However, at high larval densities, where the Gordon et al. model fails to match observed behaviour, this model predicts survival, development times and weights at maturation closely in accord with those observed. -from Authors