from your other post:
"The average reproductive rate of an individual in a population of mosquitos would be the total number of offsrping produced divided by the number of individuals in the population"
That is actually my definition you are using. Again, the populationsize, or the relationship of the organism to the environment, is presumed to be stable, both in standard definition and in my definition. So since the populationsize stays the same, then if the population is 100, then 100 need to be reproduced, because all organisms die. 100/100=1 . If we would have any more or less then 100 being reproduced, then the population would increase or decrease.
But the definition of the reproductive rate you've given works with the population staying the same or not. It does
not assume that each offspring survives to reproduce, does it?
If the rate is the number of offspring divided by the number of parents then the offspring are counted before they die, aren't they?
Therefore in a population of 100 rabbits that give rise to 500 offspring, 400 of whom are eaten by wolves, has a rate of 5.
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