Table 5.

Larval weight (g/tray), average daily gain (g/tray d), and feed conversion rate (g DM/g larvae) of Tenebrio molitor larvae from 48 to 62 d post-hatch with the different experimental diets (n = 36 trays; degrees of freedom: 2 for diets, 5 for days post-hatch, and 165 for dietary comparison at each day post-hatch)

	Diets			SEM	F-value	P-value
	WB	FC	WBG
Larval weight
48 d	45.37	65.84	52.61	4.41	1.26	0.0574
62 d	119.1a	154.1b	125.9a	9.4	1.55	0.0013
69 d	224.9a	267.4b	236.4a	10.3	1.72	<0.001
76 d	354.5a	414.9b	372.5a	14.1	1.72	<0.001
83 d	519.2a	603.9c	541.3b	20.9	1.72	<0.001
90 d	760.7a	884.6c	787.0b	32.5	1.72	<0.001
Average daily gain
0–48 d	0.945a	1.372c	1.096b	0.026	1.72	<0.001
48–62 d	5.264a	6.307b	5.235a	0.307	1.35	0.0189
62–69 d	15.12	16.18	15.79	0.72	1.07	0.3085
69–76 d	18.50a	21.07b	19.45a	0.80	1.31	0.0309
76–83 d	23.53	27.00	24.11	1.62	1.17	0.1402
83–90 d	34.50a	40.10b	35.10ab	1.96	1.29	0.0419
Global: 0–90 d	8.452a	9.828c	8.745b	0.080	1.52	0.0021
Feed conversion ratio
0–48 d	4.54c	3.26a	3.84b	0.07	1.72	<0.001
48–62 d	3.44	3.22	3.41	0.14	1.08	0.2893
62–69 d	2.96	2.91	2.80	0.13	1.04	0.4032
69–76 d	2.83	2.63	2.63	0.12	1.10	0.2514
76–83 d	3.00	2.81	3.04	0.21	1.03	0.4302
83–90 d	3.44	3.21	3.29	0.23	1.01	0.4801
Global: 0–90 d	3.19b	2.92a	2.99a	0.07	1.37	0.0149

WB: diet including wheat bran and water; FC: diet including wheat bran and fresh carrots; WBG: diet including wheat bran, wet brewer’s grains and water (see Table 3). SEM: standard error of the means.

^{a, b}Means not sharing letter for the same period were significantly different at P < 0.05.