Dynamics of insects and their facultative defensive endosymbiotic bacteria: A simulation model

Most insects harbour endosymbionts that modify their physiology, reproductive mode, and ecology. One fascinating case is in aphids, which host endosymbionts that protect them against attacks from parasitoids. These symbionts are transmitted maternally with high fidelity but can also be transmitted horizontally from infected to uninfected hosts. Since symbionts can confer resistance to their host against parasitoids, levels of symbiont infection should rapidly spread to fixation. This is not the case in most aphid populations that have been studied. Furthermore, the defensive effect of symbionts has been thought to reduce the efficacy of biological control against crop pests, although this has never been properly quantified. We developed a Monte Carlo simulation model to examine changes in levels of endosymbiont infection in an insect population in the presence of parasitoids attacking them over several generations. We also used the model to quantify potential reductions in the efficacy ..., , , # Data from: Dynamics of insects and their facultative defensive endosymbiotic bacteria: A simulation model

The codes are written in a standard ANSI C language and can be compiled with all standard compilers, linking them with the standard math library.

A typical way to compile them could be:

cc main_simulation.c -lm -o main_simulation

Launching these codes with the \"-h\" argument provides the following help lines:

usage: ./main_simulation value1 value2 value3 value4 value5 value6 value7 where value1, value2, value3, value4, value5 value6 and value7 are:
For value1: Average longevity of the females.
For value2: Average fecundity of the females.
For value3: Cost of infection by a symbiont.
For value4: Level of horizontal transmission.
For value5: Aggregation level of infected aphids.
For value6: Level of protection conferred by the symbionts.
For value7: File name to store results.

usage:./main_simulation -h gives this help

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