Holling's ''hungry mantid'' model for the invertebrate functional response considered as a Markov process. I: The full model and some of its limits (Q1821718)

In this paper we give an analytical reformulation of \textit{C. S. Holling}'s [Mem. Ent. Soc. Can. 48 (1966)] simulation model for invertebrate predatory behaviour. To this end we represent a population of predators as a frequency distribution over a space of (physiological) states. The functional response of a predator is calculated from the (stable) equilibrium distribution of its state as a function of prey density. Starting from the general model various other models are obtained by limit processes, some of them new and some of them old. The more interesting of which will be studied in further papers in this series.