Life Tables

Practice Problem:

A typical female of the bubble gum maggot (Bubblicious blowhardi Meyer) lays 250 eggs.  On average, 32 of these eggs are infertile and 64 are killed by parasites.  Of the survivors, 64 die as larvae due to habitat destruction (gum is cleared away by the janitorial staff) and 87 die as pupae because the gum gets too hard.  Construct a life table for this species and calculate a value for “R”, the replacement rate (assume a 1:1 sex ratio).  Is this population increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable?