Application of Time Scales Calculus to the Growth and Development in Populations of Stomoxys calcitrans (Diptera: Muscidae)

Typical methods of sampling for groups of insects utilize purely temporal sampling intervals. However, arthropod developmental parameters are known to be directly proportional to measures of accumulated temperature. It has recently been demonstrated that population growth models for arthropods exhibit a higher degree of correlation with empirical data when values derived from temporal sampling regimes are transformed into a function of accumulated degree days above a lower developmental threshold. Here we considered the possibility of further enhancing the accuracy of population parameter estimates by employing alternative sampling methods which incorporate temperature accumulation. We isolate the object of analysis by designing discrete models with time scales calculus. By testing two models in which the sampling interval is the experimental variable, we demonstrate that a regime which consists of sampling events evenly spaced with respect