CHAOTIC DYNAMICS IN AN INSECT POPULATION

A nonlinear demographic model was used to predict the population dynam ics of the flour beetle Tribolium under laboratory conditions and to e stablish the experimental protocol that would reveal chaotic behavior, With the adult mortality rate experimentally set high, the dynamics o f animal abundance changed from equilibrium to quasiperiodic cycles to chaos as adult-stage recruitment rates were experimentally manipulate d. These transitions in dynamics corresponded to those predicted by th e mathematical model. Phase-space graphs of the data together with the deterministic model attractors provide convincing evidence of transit ions to chaos.