Average time in developmental sequences

We revise the relation between average developmental time and developmental rates in stochastic and deterministic developmental sequences where death is a likely event. We show that what has come to be known as the Gamma trick introduces an undesirable shortening of the developmental time when it is performed according to the established habits. We show the proper way of introducing intermediate developmental stages and how this correction accounts for most (if not all) observations in simulations of dengue epidemics where it was claimed that “the time from epidemic onset to peak increases with decreasing variance in the distribution of epidemiological parameters”.