Effects of prior egg deposition and egg shell consumption (a typical behaviour of neonate larvae) on larval performance (means ± SE) of Pieris brassicae on Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 plants1 (for statistics, see Table 2).

1Batches of 40 freshly hatched larvae either fed upon a plant with prior P. brassicae egg deposition (Egg) or without any eggs (Control) until they were 4 days old; thereafter, batches of 10 larvae where transferred to fresh, undamaged egg-free plants, where they completed their development until pupation. 2 Larvae were allowed to feed upon their egg shells. 3 Larvae were prevented from feeding upon their egg shells during the first 2 days after hatching. 4 Number of batches of larvae (1 batch per plant; N = 8 for freshly hatched larvae; N = initially 4 for elder larvae).