D Bhanu Prakash

Interactions between pests and their natural enemies play a central role in ecological balance and sustainable pest management. We examine a prey–predator system in which the predator population experiences intra-specific competition and receives an external food supplement, feeding according to a Holling type-III functional response. The formulation admits a unique, globally positive solution, and we study the stability of its equilibria. The analysis reveals transcritical and saddle-node bifurcations, and numerical work illustrates hysteresis loops that indicate bistability within specific parameter ranges. Experiments on the predation of Bemisia tabaci by Orius albidipennis validate the Holling type-III assumption and parameterise the model. The findings show the combined effect of additional food and predator competition on biological control and pest suppression.

We develop and analyse a prey–predator model with a Holling type-III functional response, incorporating additional food and mutual interference among predators. The work investigates how food supplementation and predator competition affect pest dynamics and predator efficiency under optimal control. We establish positivity, boundedness, equilibria and stability, and explore global dynamics through numerical simulation. Using time-optimal control, we show that strategic food provision can drive prey elimination, offering insight for sustainable pest management.

This paper studies the stochastic time-optimal control of additional food provided prey-predator systems with a Holling type-IV functional response and intra-specific competition among predators. We examine the sensitivity of the system to its parameters and give insight into the optimal management of such ecological models.