In 1958, Carl B. Huffaker, an ecologist and agricultural entomologist at the University of California, Berkeley, did a series of experiments with predatory and herbivorous mite species to investigate predator–prey population dynamics. In these experiments, he created model universes with arrays of rubber balls and oranges (food for the herbivorous mites) on trays and then introduced the predator and prey mite species in various permutations. Specifically, Huffaker was seeking to understand how spatial heterogeneity and the varying dispersal ability of each species affected long-term population dynamics and survival. Contrary to previous experiments on this topic (especially those by Georgii Gause), he found that long-term coexistence was possible under select environmental conditions. He p