Table 2.

Formulae for calculation of growth and nutritional indices.

Indices	Formula
Relative growth rate	RGR = (m2 − m0)/(2 × m0)
Relative consumption rate	RCR = mc/(2 × m0)
Relative metabolic rate	RMR = [(mc − me) − (m2 − m0)]/(2 × m0)
The efficiency of conversion of ingested food (gross growth efficiency)	ECI = (m2 − m0)/mc × 100
Approximate digestibility (assimilation efficiency)	AD= (mc − me)/mc × 100
The efficiency of conversion of digested food (net growth efficiency)	ECD = (m2 − m0)/(mc − me) × 100
Metabolic cost	MC = 100 − ECD

m₀—initial larval mass at the beginning of the experiment; m₂—larval mass at the end of the experiment (2 days of feeding); (m₂ − m₀)—mass gain; 2—duration of the experiment expressed in days; m_c—the amount of consumed food (difference between final and initial dry food mass); m_e– a dry mass of excrements; (m_c − m_e)—the amount of assimilated food; [(m_c − m_e) − (m₂ − m₀)]—the amount of metabolized food.