Insect Populations In Theory and in Practice : 19th Symposium of the Royal Entomological Society 10–11 September 1997 at the University of Newcastle

Insects are by far the largest group of animals on Earth, with over a million described species, and they occupy a wide range of ecological niches - they may be herbivores, predators, parasites or decomposers. Some are of particular economic importance as pests of agriculture and forestry, as vectors of animal and human disease, or as species of interest to wildlife conservation. Thus an understanding of the processes determining their numbers is of considerable practical value. Entomologists have played a leading role in developing a theoretical basis to Population Ecology, but we still do not have adequate experimental and observational proof for many of the theoretical ideas that have been proposed. As a result, the subject has been beset with arguments for more than 50 years. This volume attempts to reconcile some of these controversies, while also reviewing the current state of our knowledge. The editors have drawn together an international list of contributors whose views reflect a range of opinions on how natural populations are stabilised. They have succeeded in producing a book that both covers the main alternative views in population theory and contains some of the best recent field studies of insect populations. This Royal Entomological Society Symposium volume will be of great interest to all entomologists and ecologists, particularly those who wish to know more about Population Dynamics. Front Matter....Pages i-xx Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Spatial structure and dynamics of insect populations....Pages 3-27 The regulation of populations by density-dependent processes....Pages 29-51 The role of density-independent processes in the stabilization of insect populations....Pages 53-80 Resource limitation of populations and ceiling models....Pages 81-95 The problems associated with the identification of density dependence in population data....Pages 97-133 Host-parasitoid dynamics....Pages 135-165 Biological control of insects: implications for theory in population ecology....Pages 167-186 The effects of qualitative changes of individuals in the population dynamics of insects....Pages 187-204 Front Matter....Pages 205-205 Population dynamics of aphids....Pages 207-230 The population dynamics of Tephritidae that inhabit flowerheads....Pages 231-259 Population dynamics in the genus Maculinea (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)....Pages 261-290 The dynamics of a herbivore-plant interaction, the cinnabar moth and ragwort....Pages 291-308 The population dynamics of Operophtera brumata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)....Pages 309-321 Population ecology of a gall-inducing sawfly, Euura lasiolepis , and relatives....Pages 323-340 The population ecology of Trichochermes walkeri ....Pages 341-366 Bottom-up population regulation of a herbivorous lady beetle: an evolutionary perspective....Pages 367-389 The population ecology of Megaloprepus coerulatus and its effect on species assemblages in water-filled tree holes....Pages 391-416 Back Matter....Pages 417-486