title: Life stages: interactions and spatial patterns.
abstract: In many stage-structured species, different life stages often occupy separate spatial niches in a heterogeneous environment. Life stages of the giant flour beetle Tribolium brevicornis (Leconte), in particular adults and pupae, occupy different locations in a homogeneous habitat. This unique spatial pattern does not occur in the well-studied stored grain pests T. castaneum (Herbst) and T. confusum (Duval). We propose density dependent dispersal as a causal mechanism for this spatial pattern. We model and explore the spatial dynamics of T. brevicornis with a set of four density dependent integrodifference and difference equations. The spatial model exhibits multiple attractors: a spatially uniform attractor and a patchy attractor with pupae and adults spatially separated. The model attractors are consistent with experimental observations.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. srobertson@mbi.osu.edu
authors.forename: Suzanne L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cushing
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Costantino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005433:Flour / Q000469:parasitology; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008954:Models, Biological; D011156:Population Density; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D014231:Tribolium / Q000254:growth & development*