The dynamics of insect-pathogen interactions in seasonal environments (Q1817482)

We develop age-structured models of insect-pathogen interactions in highly seasonal environments. Our aims are threefold: first, to explore the potential for insect pathogens to cause the type of long-term cycles seen in forest insects; second, to study the effects of different pathogen natural histories on stability and equilibrium population density (if one exists) with a view to providing information of use in the selection of biological control agents; third, to develop a new model framework that can serve as a template for more detailed studies of specific insect-pathogen interactions. The paper is organized as follows. The next section provides an overview, describing both the biological motivation for our models and the modeling strategy that we adopt. In the following sections we develop and analyze a baseline model followed by three extensions incorporating different aspects of insect-pathogen natural history. The discussion includes a comparison of our results with the few other studies of insect-pathogen dynamics in seasonal environments, as well as a comparison with the much larger literature on insect-parasitoid dynamics.