Fig. 2

Physiological characterizations of N. hirtum larvae fed with artificial diets. Survival rate (a) during the feeding period, and diet weight loss (b), larvae body weight increase (c) and the relationship between diet weight loss and larval body weight (d) after 6 months of feeding period are shown. Value refers to mean ± standard deviation. Different letters (A, B, and C) indicate significant differences among the diet treatments (Tukey HSD test; p < 0.05). Individual diet weight and larval body weight data are listed in Additional file 1: Table S1. LS, low-starch content diet. MS, medium-starch content diet. HS, high-starch content diet