What is the importance of life tables in insect ecology?

Life tables give the most comprehensive description of the age-specific survival rate and fecundity of insect populations. These information can also be used to project the population growth and stage differentiation. Using life table, we can compare the population growth potential of an insect on different host plants, under different environmental conditions. It can be used to compare different insects under the same conditions. If we combine the life table study with consumption rate study of a pest insect, we can also estimate the damage of a insect population to a crop plant. If we combine the life table study with predation rate study of a predatory insect, it is also possible to estimate the potential of this predator as an agent of biological control. Life table is the most important basis for qualitative and quantitative study of population ecology.

(Prof. Dr. Hsin Chi, hsinchi@dragon.nchu.edu.tw)