Comments on Fluctuations of Animal Populations and Measures of Community Stability

Abstract

AbstractThree questions are asked in this paper.(1) Is the numerical stability of an insect species through time a function of the number of species of food eaten by that species?(2) Is the information content of a genus related to the stability of species in the genus?(3) Is the information content of an insect genus related to the number of species of food eaten by the species in that genus?Data in the Canadian Forest Insect Survey bulletins on Forest Macrolepidoptera are used to answer all three questions; data on parasitic Hymenoptera stored in museums are used to answer the third question. There is some indication that stability decreases with number of host species, and that information content of a genus is less, the less the stability of the species it contains. The evidence from both bodies of data suggests that information content of a genus is less, the greater the average number of species of food eaten by the species in the genus.