A Lotka–Volterra type food chain model with stage structure and time delays

A three-species Lotka–Volterra type food chainmodel with stage structure and time delays is investigated. It is assumed in the model that the individuals in each species may belong to one of two classes: the immatures and the matures, the age to maturity is presented by a time delay, and that the immature predators (immature top predators) do not have the ability to feed on prey (predator). By using some comparison arguments, we first discuss the permanence of the model. By means of an iterative technique, a set of easily verifiable sufficient conditions are established for the global attractivity of the nonnegative equilibria of the model.  2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved