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An annual pulse-breeding predator-prey model combines continuous predation and mortality between short reproduction episodes with an annual difference equation. If surviving predators produce offspring in proportion to prey surviving the year, retained adults give the displayed map. Here $r$ combines prey reproduction and natural survival, $s$ is predator survival, and $\kappa$ integrates predation over declining predator abundance. The positive annual equilibrium is $X_{\ast }=(1-s)/(sb)$, $Y_{\ast }=\log r/\kappa$ for $r>1$ and $0<s<1$.

The annual pulse-breeding predator-prey model is an area-preserving map in logarithmic population coordinates: $u^{\prime }=u+\log r-\kappa e^v$, then $v^{\prime }=v+\log s+\log (1+b{e}^{u^{\prime }})$. Each step is a shear of determinant one. At a positive fixed point, the ordinary-population Jacobian matrix has determinant one and trace $2-(1-s)\log r$. Eigenvalues lie on the unit circle for $0<(1-s)\log r<4$, but this linear neutrality does not prove nonlinear stability at every resonance. Area preservation excludes an isolated attracting positive periodic cycle.

The Nicholson-Bailey model describes seasonal host-parasitoid interaction. Hosts surviving random attacks reproduce, while parasitoid offspring are proportional to attacked hosts. For $r>1$, its positive equilibrium is $Y_{\ast }=(\log r)/a$, $X_{\ast }=r{Y}_{\ast }/[c(r-1)]$. Counting attacked rather than surviving hosts makes its predator reproduction law different from the annual pulse-breeding predator-prey model.

Use an annual pulse-breeding predator-prey model. Let $X_n,Y_n$ be the abundances just after reproduction, and let the year have length $T$. Between breeding pulses, assume mass-action predation, natural mortality rates ${\mu }_X,{\mu }_Y>0$, and no reproduction:Solving the predator equation and inserting it into the prey equation gives the pre-breeding abundancesSuppose reproduction multiplies surviving prey by $R$ and adds $q{X}_n^{-}$ offspring per surviving predator. Retaining the surviving adults gives $X_{n+1}=R{X}_n^{-}$, $Y_{n+1}=Y_n^{-}(1+q{X}_n^{-})$. Define $r=R{e}^{-{\mu }_{X}T}$, $s=e^{-{\mu }_{Y}T}$, $\kappa =\beta (1-s)/{\mu }_Y$ and $b=q/R$. The resulting difference equations areThus offspring depend on prey available at the end of the year, not on the number killed during the year. The adult-survival convention is part of the model; if breeding replaces all adults, use $Y_{n+1}=sb{Y}_n{X}_{n+1}$ instead. Both are consistent pulse models under their respective life-history assumptions.

For the adult-survival annual pulse-breeding predator-prey model, a positive annual fixed point exists when $r>1$ and $0<s<1$:At this point the Jacobian matrix isIf $0<(1-s)\log r<4$, the two eigenvalues are a complex conjugate pair of moduli one. The annual samples show linearly neutral seasonal oscillations. If $(1-s)\log r>4$, they form a reciprocal negative real pair and the fixed point is a saddle fixed point of a map. Equality at four is a degenerate boundary needing nonlinear analysis. For replacement rather than surviving adults the same calculation gives trace $2-\log r$ and determinant one.

The absence of an attracting annual cycle is stronger than a linear observation. Put $u=\log X$, $v=\log Y$. The update becomesIt is the composition of two nonlinear shear maps, each of determinant one: an area-preserving seasonal predator-prey map. No isolated positive periodic orbit has an open attracting basin. Neutral linear oscillations alone also do not prove nonlinear stability at every resonance. In particular, this density-independent model does not select an asymptotically stable oscillation amplitude.

The Nicholson-Bailey model instead counts parasitoid offspring from attacked hosts:Its positive equilibrium has $Y_{\ast }=\log r/\kappa$ and $X_{\ast }=Y_{\ast }/[c(1-1/r)]$. Its Jacobian matrix hasSince the determinant exceeds one while the positive trace is below two, the eigenvalues are complex with moduli greater than one: instability of the Nicholson-Bailey equilibrium produces outward oscillations near it. The two maps share an exponential prey-survival factor but have different reproduction laws and stability properties.