Food Assimilation Efficiency as a Function of Temperature and Meal Size in Larvae of Chaoborus trivittatus (Diptera: Chaoboridae)

(1) Food assimilation efficiency (AE) was determined by feeding a known number of labelled (32P) copepods of various sizes to the 4th instar larvae of Chaoborus trivittatus. (2) At 24 degrees C AE was nearly constant at about 80% for all meal sizes, but at other temperatures it decreased from 91.2 t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of animal ecology 1981-02, Vol.50 (1), p.103-109
Main Author: Giguere, Louis A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal ecology
Animal feeding behavior
Feed conversion ratio
Food
Food availability
Foraging
Larvae
Marine biology
Physiological assimilation
Predators
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Summary:(1) Food assimilation efficiency (AE) was determined by feeding a known number of labelled (32P) copepods of various sizes to the 4th instar larvae of Chaoborus trivittatus. (2) At 24 degrees C AE was nearly constant at about 80% for all meal sizes, but at other temperatures it decreased from 91.2 to 86.5% for meal sizes of 0.10 to 0.50 mu l, and varied from 75.8% at 16 degrees C to 52% at 6 degrees C for a meal size of about 0.90 mu l. (3) Further feeding by a larva (often resulting in an emptying of the gut after a starvation period) can reduce these estimates by 5-10%. The importance of these results to optimal foraging theory is discussed.
ISSN:0021-8790
1365-2656
DOI:10.2307/4034