Table 1.
Total lipid (% dry weight) and fatty acid composition (μg FA mg-1 dry weight) of experimental diets1,2 fed to cabbage white butterfly larvae under laboratory conditions.
Table 2.
The number of days from hatch to pupation and emergence, and from pupation to emergence (mean ± standard deviation) 1, in Pieris rapae larvae fed experimental diets containing EPA and DHA.
Table 3.
Larval, pupal, and butterfly weights (wet weight, mg), and morphological measurements1,2 (cm) in Pieris rapae larvae fed experimental diets containing EPA and DHA.
Fig 1.
Example of cabbage butterflies (pinned to insect boards) fed experimental diets 48 hours after emergence: butterfly with deformed wings (left panel, 100% EPA + DHA diet) compared to a butterfly with intact wings (right panel, control diet).
Fig 2.
Incidence of wing deformities in Pieris rapae butterflies fed EPA and DHA enhanced diets in larval stage.
The incidence of wing deformities correlates significantly with the level of EPA and DHA in the diet (correlation coefficient R = 0.988; p = 0.001).
Fig 3.
Pieris rapae butterfly weight (mg) with increasing levels of EPA and DHA in larval diets.
Fig 4.
Linear relationship between dietary EPA + DHA and tissue EPA + DHA in Pieris rapae butterflies fed experimental diets.
Table 4.
Total lipid (% dry weight) and fatty acid composition (μg FA mg-1 dry weight) of whole Pieris rapae butterflies (n = 12 per treatment) that were fed experimental diets during their larval stage1.