Question

Evaluation of potential food sources for insects requires the ability to reflect on differences in utilization and performance. Explain what the terms “utilization” and “performance” specifically refer to in context of insects. Then identify and define the different parameters for expressing both utilization and performance. State in your definitions how each parameter is measured/calculated.

Answer 1

Insect performance is determined by giving the insect a certain type of diet and calculated as a product of insect surviving by average growth per day.

An overall understanding of the utilization of a food requires answers to the following questions: At what rate is the food eaten? How much of the eaten food is actually digested? What part of the food is incorporated as body substance? These questions cannot be answered without a reliable and accurate method for determining the weight of the food ingested, the weight of the feces which correspond to the ingested food and the weight gained by the insect during the experiment. These three measurements are basic and necessary for the calculation of the rate of feeding, the digestibility and the efficiency of conversion of food to body substance

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