The Company of Biologists

Table 3.

Body mass, energy and fruit fly intake of Sephanoides sephaniodes acclimated to offered natural diets differing in nitrogen quantity

	Groups
	Nect+FF	Nect₄+FF	FF alone^{^*}
Number of birds:	6	6	5	F	P-value
Body mass (g)
Initial	5.69±0.08	5.56±0.09	5.40±0.09	2.16	0.16
After 12 h - initial	0.51±0.02	−0.12±0.01	-	33.45	0.0004
After 24 h - initial	−0.06±0.05	−0.21±0.04	-	0.02	0.18
Nectar intake (ml day⁻¹)	10.06±0.30	4.00±0	0^{^†}	3.48	0.03
Fruit fly intake
Number day⁻¹	147.6±7.20^a	171.3±6.85^b	81.4±12.9^{^†}	5.35	0.05
Number h⁻¹	12.8±0.57	14.9±0.61	16.7±2.50	0.67	0.53
Energy intake
kJ day⁻¹	45.45±1.15	21.19±0.19	2.41±0.39	686.15	<0.0001
kJ h⁻¹	3.95±0.22^a	1.84±0.04^b	0.46±0.16^c	704.64	<0.0001

	Groups
	Nect+FF	Nect₄+FF	FF alone^{^*}
Number of birds:	6	6	5	F	P-value
Body mass (g)
Initial	5.69±0.08	5.56±0.09	5.40±0.09	2.16	0.16
After 12 h - initial	0.51±0.02	−0.12±0.01	-	33.45	0.0004
After 24 h - initial	−0.06±0.05	−0.21±0.04	-	0.02	0.18
Nectar intake (ml day⁻¹)	10.06±0.30	4.00±0	0^{^†}	3.48	0.03
Fruit fly intake
Number day⁻¹	147.6±7.20^a	171.3±6.85^b	81.4±12.9^{^†}	5.35	0.05
Number h⁻¹	12.8±0.57	14.9±0.61	16.7±2.50	0.67	0.53
Energy intake
kJ day⁻¹	45.45±1.15	21.19±0.19	2.41±0.39	686.15	<0.0001
kJ h⁻¹	3.95±0.22^a	1.84±0.04^b	0.46±0.16^c	704.64	<0.0001

Values are mean ± 1 s.e.m.

F and P values are from a one-way ANCOVA, using body mass as a covariate.

Diets: Nect+FF, nectar and fruit flies ad libitum;Nect₄+FF, 4 ml of nectar and fruit flies ad libitum; FF alone, only fruit flies.

Each bird was kept on this diet as long as it could maintain its normal pattern of activities (4-6 h approx.).

For information only; this value was not used in the analyses.