Modeling Parasitoid-Host Dynamics with Delay Differential Equations

parasitoid attack rate

α

1

host reproduction rate

γ

0.5

host death rate

d

A

0.4

parasitoid death rate

d

P

0.55

host maturation delay

τ

A

1

parasitoid maturation delay

τ

P

1

starting densities

A

0

2

P

0

0.3

time

t

50

uninfected larvae

adults

parasitoids

A parasitoid is an organism that inhabits a host organism. Unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilizes or consumes the host, a more dire prognosis for the host.

This Demonstration shows the population dynamics of a parasitoid-host model. Parasitoids attack host larvae, which then develop into new parasitoids instead of adult hosts. Maturation delays for host and parasitoid are explicitly taken into account by implementing delay differential equations. The model is adopted from [1] in a slightly simplified form.