Equilibrium Biogeography and Its Application to Insect Host-Parasite Systems
- 1 February 1983
- journal article
- research article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in The American Naturalist
- Vol. 121 (2) , 244-254
- https://doi.org/10.1086/284054
Abstract
The application of the MacArthur-Wilson equilibrium biogeography model to insect hosts and their parasites is discussed and encouraged. Colonization of the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), by parasites following its accidental introduction to eastern North America is used as evidence that dynamic equilibrium exists between the immigration of new parasite species to an insect host and the extinction of species already present. Although these results are in part consistent with the nonequilibrium hypotheses of Price (1980), the historical interactions between the gypsy moth and its parasites in North America closely adhere to the predictions of the MacArthur-Wilson equilibrium model.This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Using Island Biogeographic Distributions to Determine if Colonization is StochasticThe American Naturalist, 1978
- Parasite Incidence and Ecological Relationships in Field Populations of Gypsy Moth 1 Larvae and PupaeEnvironmental Entomology, 1976
- Avifauna Richness on the California Channel IslandsOrnithological Applications, 1976
- Short-Time-Base Studies of Turnover in Breeding Bird Populations on the California Channel IslandsOrnithological Applications, 1976
- THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL OF INSULAR VARIATION IN BIRD SPECIES ABUNDANCEProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1964
- AN EQUILIBRIUM THEORY OF INSULAR ZOOGEOGRAPHYEvolution, 1963
- The Present Status of the Control of the Gipsy Moth and the Brown-Tail Moth by Means of ParasitesJournal of Economic Entomology, 1926