Age-Specific Survival, Fecundity and Fertility of the Adult Blowfly, Lucilia cuprina, in Relation to Crowding, Protein Food and Population Cycles

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Abstract
The age-specific performance of adult L. cuprina is documented under conditions similar to those used in Nicholson''s work on blowfly population cycles. The effects of crowding and protein food on the survival of adult females are quantified using the Gompertz function which has 2 parameters: .alpha. the rate of mortality at birth (= emergence) and .beta., the exponential rate of increase in mortality rate with increasing age. Crowding increased the rate of mortality in both sexes but females lived longer than males at all densities. Protein food also influenced adult survival but its major effect was on age-specific fecundity of the female flies. The patterns of age-specific survival and fecundity in relation to crowding and availability of protein food, seem to explain the double-peaked nature of the population cycles depicted by Nicholson.

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