| Table 1. Symbols appearing in text, with definitions. |
| s |
biomass (size) of plant foliage |
| t |
time |
| r |
mass specific growth rate of plant foliage |
| r0 |
maximum growth rate (r) for plants |
| H |
rate of herbivory (removal of foliage) |
| c |
average probability of survivorship for juvenile herbivores on the plant |
| p |
biomass of foliage required to produce one adult herbivore |
| i |
category of plants in which average juvenile herbivore survivorship equals a specified value (or range of values) |
| si |
biomass (size) of plant category i |
| ^si |
equilibrium size for plant si |
| s0 |
maximum biomass for plant category i |
| ci |
average value of c for plant category i |
| D(i) |
function for distribution of herbivore eggs among plant categories |
P(i) |
production of new herbivore adults by plant i |
| P |
number of adult herbivores produced per unit time for all plants |
| n |
number of adult herbivores in the population |
| ^n |
number of adult herbivores in the population at equilibrium |
| b |
per capita birth rate (egg production) by adult herbivores |
| μ |
per capita death rate of adult herbivores |
| S |
total plant biomass, summed over all plant categories |
| ^S |
total plant biomass at equilibrium |
| m |
“marginally defoliated” category of plants; plants with values of ci>cm are defoliated and plants with ci<cm are not |
| cm |
value of ci of the “marginally defoliated” plants |
| x |
value of ci transformed to a logarithmic scale x=ln(ci) |
| xm |
value of x for the “marginally defoliated” plants |
| sx |
biomass (or # leaves) of full-grown plants |
| Z |
span along x-axis; (xm – Z) is the right–to-left span beginning at xm and ending Z units to the left of xm |
| PR(x) |
function determining the “strength of preference” during oviposition (host plant selection) |
| a |
coefficient of preference for “best” host plants. (a=0) no preference. (a>1) strong preference. |
| K |
the smallest value of x = xmin |
| g |
proportionality constant for scaling preference equation |