Delay equation models for populations that experience competition at immature life stages

We consider stage-structured population models of intra- and inter-specific competition at immature life stages. A prototype delay model is derived for a single species that experiences larval competition. Its solutions are bounded for any birth function. Other ways of modelling the birth rate can lead to nonlinear integral equations. In some situations the technique of reducing an age-structured model to a system of delay equations applies. In the case of immature competition the delay equations cannot always be written down explicitly because their right hand sides depend on the solutions of the nonlinear ordinary differential equations that arise when one solves the nonlinear age-structured equations that determine the maturation rates in terms of the birth rates. This situation arises in the case of competition between two strains or species. However, in our two-strain competition model, vital properties of those right hand sides can be indirectly inferred using monotone systems theory.