Modelling Behavioral Decisions of Insects

Many problems in animal behavior can be viewed as dynamic control problems. In this paper, the dynamic viewpoint is used to analyze certain behavioral decisions of insects, in particular oviposition site selection and clutch size. The theory is motivated by work on parasitic wasps and fruit parasitic insects--particularly apple maggot (Rhagoletis pomonella) and medfly (Ceratitis capitata). The theory presented in this paper is based on Markovian decision processes in either discrete or continuous time. In these decision processes, the objective functional is a measure of fitness obtained through egg production. The paper closes with some speculations about how insects may be able to solve dynamic programming problems.

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