Fig. 1

Flow diagram of one simulation step. Each step represents one reproductive cycle (i.e. one year) and consists of several phases: (1) resources in each patch are reset to their base value ±10 %; (2) the resources in each patch are divided among the agents present in the patch in direct proportion to their size. Agents then utilize this share of resources to grow. (3) Each agent ‘consumes’ a proportion of its workers to cover maintenance costs. (4) Agents larger than a threshold size produce offspring following the agent’s reproductive strategy (ICF or DCF), with the resources invested in reproduction removed from the parent agent and converted to dispersing offspring; (5) offspring disperse immediately after being produced following their dispersal strategy (ICF or DCF). Those surviving dispersal become new agents on the arrival patch; (6) agents die from old age, from starvation via maintenance costs (if they reach size 0) or from patch-level stochastic extinction (disturbance). Colours represent entities in the model: light grey represents patch actions, green refers to colony actions, and orange indicates offspring actions