An Individual-Based Model for Competing Drosophila Populations

Abstract

An individual-based model for Drosophila is formulated, based on competition amongst larvae consuming the same batch of food. The predictions of the model are supported by data for single species Drosophila populations reared in the laboratory. The model is used to build a simple discrete model for the dynamics of Drosophila populations that are kept over a number of generations. The dynamics of a single species is shown to give either a stable equilibrium or fluctuations which can be periodic or chaotic. When the dynamics of a species in the absence of the other is periodic or chaotic, we found coexistence or two alternative states, on neither of which the species can coexist.