Adaptive evolution of attack ability promotes the evolutionary branching of predator species

In this paper, with the methods of adaptive dynamics and critical function analysis, we investigate the evolutionary branching phenomenon of predator species. We assume that both the prey and predators are density-dependent and the predator’s attack ability can adaptively evolve, but this has a cost in terms of its death rate. First, we identify the general properties of trade-off relationships that allow for a continuously stable strategy and evolutionary branching in the predator strategy. It is found that if the trade-off curve is weakly concave near the singular strategy, then the singular strategy may be an evolutionary branching point. Second, we find that after the branching has occurred in the predator strategy, if the trade-off curve is convex–concave–convex, the predator species will eventually evolve into two different types, which can stably coexist on the much longer evolutionary timescale and no further branching is possible.