Modelling collective foraging in endemic bark beetle populations

The results show that social foraging effectively increases the proportion of beetles that landed on wind-felled resources compared to solitary foragers. Furthermore, the model highlights the parameters that influenced the foraging strategy of I. typographus and that need narrower quantification in further experiments. Finally, in the frame of the tested parameters, the model highlights the existence of thresholds in the reproduction rate and in the size of the starting population under which populations collapse. If confirmed, this prediction would shed new light on the understanding of foraging at low, endemic population levels.