Dear Anito

1. You should design an experiment;

2. The factors/random variables including time which suppose to affect the number of insects in all generation should be fixed and determined;

3. How many generation you have;

4. What is the size of each generation for the same time and

5. Based on above steps the statistical measures/tests to be developed.

Regards,

Zuhair

Your description of the data is too short to permit a clear answer. What kind of insects is it ? Withe clearly separated generations, or with overlapping generations ? semelparous or iteroparous ? When occur your counts ? At regular time intervals ? At different but recorded intervals ? What do you mean by "population" ? Is it the total population in your rearing cabinets or an external population of reference ? I apologize for answering to a question by other questions but these details are necessary to answer clearly.

Regards

See Leroux et al. (2008), notably Table 3, here attached

Dear Anito,

Although I am not a statistician, but as a scientist, I can make the following submissions. As submitted by the previous respondents, the information provided by you seems too slim (insufficient) for one to be able to guide on the appropriate statistical analysis that befits your experiment.

In your response to those questions, can you please look at the following questions as well?

(a) Did you start with the same number of insects at each generation?

(b) Did you keep equal number of male and female at each generational study?

(c) Did you allow equal duration for each generational study?

(d) Was the laboratory conditions used for the study (for all generations) homogeneous?

(e) Did you replicate the study? Or was it repeated a number of times?

Perhaps Chi square or Analysis of variance can be relevant (in case of more than two generations). But I will suggest that you gather answers to the asked questions by all the respondents and then interact with a bio-statistician.

With my kind regards,