THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND POPULATION-GROWTH RATES IN MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS

A model incorporating the optimal partitioning of energy gained from assimilation between soma and gonads, the optimal time of maturation and constraints on the gonadal growth rate and the size of the soma at birth, predicted that the optimum ratio of the population to individual relative growth rate, rm/RGR, in multicellular organisms lies in the region of 0·9. Empirical data for parthenogenetic aphids, which have overcome the constraint on their rate of increase imposed by developmental time by telescoping of generations, shows that they achieve this ratio. © 1992 Academic Press Limited.