A general structured model for a sequential hermaphrodite population

This paper introduces and analyzes a model of sequential hermaphroditism in the framework of continuously structured population models with sexual reproduction. The model is general in the sense that the birth, transition (from one sex to the other) and death processes of the population are given by arbitrary functions according to a biological meaningful hypotheses. The system is reduced to a single equation introducing the intrinsic sex-ratio subspace. The steady states are analyzed and illustrated for several cases. In particular, neglecting the competition for resources we have explicitly found a unique non-trivial equilibrium which is unstable.