1973 ] 
Ra?nousse — A raneus diadematus 
3i 
eating, we assume that a fly was eaten entirely. The mean quantity 
of food consumed per day was : 
set I set II 
FG 
2.44 mg/d 
2.06 mg/d 
SG 
i. 44 mg/d 
1.39 mg/d 
The FG spiders ate a significantly higher quantity of food per day 
than the SG ones (set I: T = 6, P ~ 0.05; set II : T = 8, 
P — O.05 ) . There was a significant difference in the amount of 
food consumed per day between FG males of the two sets (T = 8.5, 
P = 0.05). 
The mean quantity of food eaten between the last two molts was: 
set I set II 
FG 
3-33 mg/d 
2.61 mg/d 
SG 
2.85 mg/d 
3.54 mg/d 
In each set the mean quantity of food consumed per day between the 
last two molts was significantly higher than the mean amount of 
food eaten per day during the preceding observation period, (Wil- 
coxon test: set I : N = 10, T = o, P = 0.0 1 ; set II: N = 13, 
T = 1, P = 0.01). 
A relationship exists between the amount of food eaten per day 
and the growth rate in both sets, indicating that the growth rate is 
a function of the amount of food consumed (Kendall rank coefficient; 
set I: y = 0.55, P = 0.01 ; set II : y = 0.60, P = O.OOi). The 
foot eaten was used to sustain the basal metabolism, to make silk, 
and to build the body of the spiders. A rough estimate of the per- 
centage of food transformed into spider tissues was obtained by 
dividing the gain of body-weight per day by the quantity of food 
consumed per day: the FG males used about 57 % (set I) and 47% 
(set II) of the food they ate, while the SG males transformed only 
33% (set I) or 32% (set II) of their food into spider tissues. The 
FG groups transformed a greater amount of food consumed into 
spider tissues than did the SG groups (set I : T = 6, P == 0.05; 
