1. After investigating the results of our experiment, we also conducted an investigation using the computer simulation. Here we attempted to test a similar initial hypothesis we examined in our actual experiment. However, the computer simulation adds a level of competition, that we could not have produced in the actual experiment since we would not able to track which eggs came from SI or BF beetles (as all would look the same). In the computer simulation, we wanted to see how the competition between the two variant in varying proportions of the preferred bean type would impact the survival of either SI or BF. Would the SI automatically have the advantage because they prefer the more nutritious mung beans and or might the same results of no significant difference in life history strategy seen in the experimental results appear in the computer simulation? Also will the “greedy” larval strategy of SI prove to be more beneficial to their survival than the “sharing” larval strategy of BF on BF survival?…show more content… These results showed that when the certain preferred bean type was in greater proportion, the corresponding beetle variant would be favored (this was measured by the different number of beetles in each variant over the 4/5 generations), as we expected. However, the condition with 50% mung (Figure 2, Condition C) shows that BF will outcompete the SI, even though the SI have the more nutritious preferred bean type. This greater success in BF can be attributed to the BF in using the “sharing” larval strategy in its life-history strategy. This data thus provided evidence that larval strategy rather than the oviposition strategy would be influential in the condition of equal bean types and equal number of each beetle
