Populations and Ecosystems

Population  All the individuals of a species that are living in an area at one time.

Milkweed Bug Reflection  How big was your population of milkweed bugs?  Will the population continue to grow?  How big will the population be in a month?  How big will the population be in a year?

Reproductive Potential  Every population has the potential to increase in size. Some populations have the potential for slow, steady growth; others have the potential to increase rapidly. If you have the proper information at hand, you can calculate the potential for population growth for any organism. The theoretical unlimited growth of a population over time is its reproductive potential.

Determining Reproductive Potential  What information would you need in order to predict the size of the population in the future?

Milkweed Bug Reproductive Potential  Entomologists have discovered some general information about the lives of milkweed bugs living in the wild. That information is written on your sheet in the question and answer chart.  Your observations from last year should have provided similar information for the indoor milkweed bugs.  Based on the information at had, you should be able to figure out how many bugs will be in the population after a month, 2 months or a year, if nothing limits population growth

Prediction:  Predict how many milkweed bugs will be in the population if they start with just one adult male and one adult female bug, and the population reproduces without limitation for a year.

Reminders:  Without any limitation on population growth, every egg produces a new individual in the population and every individual lives out its natural life, 4 months.  Only females produce eggs. Half the population is female.  Both male and female bugs are 2 months old when they reach maturity and mate, and the females produce 100 eggs  When a generation reaches maturity at 2 months, its parents are 4 months old and they die. Dead bugs must be subtracted from the population  The population at any time is the number of immature milkweed bugs plus their parents, minus their grandparents.