Evaluation of Continuous Host-Parasitoid Models

ln this dissertation the performance of continuous host-parasitoid models were investigated. The parameter values for several well-known models: Lotka-volterra, Holling Type 2. Holling Type 3, Leslie-Gower. Bazykin, Beddington-DeAngelis. Yodzis and Rosenzwing- MacArthur Models were estimated. The models were tested on 40 consecutive sets of time series data collected at 1 4 days interval for pest and parasitoid population obtained from a highland cabbage growing area in Eastern Kenya. model parameters were estimated from the minimization of the loss functions between the theoretical and experimental series datasets following the Nelder-Mead multidimensional method. Initial values of population size andparameters were randomly chosen. Durbin-Watson statistic was applied for comparison of model outputs and experimental population trajectories. Among theeight different host-parasitoid model. Holling type 3 model presented relatively betterapproximation compared to the Other models.