Global Hopf Bifurcation Analysis of a Nicholson’s Blowflies Equation of Neutral Type

Abstract

We investigate Hopf bifurcations in a delayed Nicholson’s blowflies equation of neutral type, derived from the Gurtin–MacCamy model. A key parameter that determines the direction of the Hopf bifurcation and the stability of the bifurcating periodic solutions is derived. Global extension of local Hopf branches is established by combining a global Hopf bifurcation theorem with a Bendixson criterion for higher dimensional ordinary differential equations. We show that a branch of slowly varying periodic solutions and a branch of fast oscillating periodic solutions coexist for all large delays.