Jl. Boldrini et al., NONLOCAL INTERACTIONS AND THE DYNAMICS OF DISPERSAL IN IMMATURE INSECTS, Journal of theoretical biology, 185(4), 1997, pp. 523-531
A simple mathematical model is developed to explain the appearance of
oscillations in the dispersal of larvae from the food source in experi
mental populations of certain species of blowflies. The life history o
f the immature stage in these flies, and in a number of other insects,
is a system with two populations, one of larvae dispersing on the soi
l and the other of larvae that burrow in the soil to pupate. The obser
ved oscillations in the horizontal distribution of buried pupae at the
end of the dispersal process are hypothesized to be a consequence of
larval crowding at a given point in the pupation substrate. It is assu
med that dispersing larvae are capable of perceiving variations in den
sity of larvae buried at a given point in the substrate of pupation, a
nd that pupal density may influence pupation of dispersing larvae. The
assumed interaction between dispersing larvae and the larvae that are
burrowing to pupate is modeled using the concept of non-local effects
. Numerical solutions of integro-partial differential equations develo
ped to model density-dependent immature dispersal demonstrate that var
iation in the parameter that governs the non-local interaction between
dispersing and buried larvae induces oscillations in the final horizo
ntal distribution of pupae. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.