ABSTRACT
All ecological systems are collections of coupled oscillators, and it is not surprising that the metaphor has been applied to coupled ecological systems generally, and especially to classical trophic systems. The elementary oscillators may be connected to one another as were the pendulum clocks of Christian Huygens. The predator dominates the oscillations with the prey, and in the alternative state, the disease seems to dominate the oscillations with the prey. Although this theory of "limiting similarity" and "species packing" was originally formulated as an evolutionary argument, its utility as a conceptual framing is far broader. The seasonality influences the system in that the rate of reproduction of the insect is slightly higher in the wet season than in the dry season. Some fairly obvious patterns can be anticipated from the basic arrangement of the forced oscillator system.
