Consider a colony of beetles. Assume that the beetles live at most 4 years. Divide the

Chapter 3, Problem 10

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Consider a colony of beetles. Assume that the beetles live at most 4 years. Divide the female population into four age groups 0--1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, each spanning 1 year. Suppose an initial number of females is 110, and that they spread over the four age groups 50 : 35 : 15 : 10. Let the average birth rates per beetle of the four age groups be 0, 5, 3, 1 per year. Suppose the average survival probabilities of the four goups are 0.4, 0.2, 0.1 and 0. Predict the population distributions for the next four years. Determine the long-term trend in population growth, and group distribution.