Mealworm lifecycle

We were given 3 mealworms from school to observe the metamorphosis life cycle of a beetle. This is a record of the life of our mealworms. I discovered that we may have been given superworms, a larger specie of the darkling beetle, Zophobas morio. 

The larvae resembles very much like large mealworms except that the ends of their bodies are very dark. We also observed that when we separated a larva which was showing signs of pupating, the larva turned into a pupa much faster when it was left alone. The remaining 2 larvae which were happily overfed and socializing, were less keen to pupate. 

27 March 2023 

We originally kept the mealworms in a small box, a handy insect box purchased at Daiso. Perhaps we added a tad too much organic baby oats. The mealworms were hardly to be seen, well-hidden in the mountain of oats. 

2 April 2023

4 April 2023

One of the larvae shedded its exoskeleton.

8 April 2023

The larva that shedded its exoskeleton started to curl and harden. Motionless until I poke it with a plastic spoon and it wriggled slightly.

9 April 2023

I bought a large pet insect box from Daiso which has a divider. The curled worm was placed separately from the active mealworms. 

10 April 2023

All of a sudden, overnight - the curled worm turned into a pupa!

16 April 2023

The process took awhile...

18 April 2023

Definitely seeing some changes...

Meanwhile the other mealworms were feasting.

20 April 2023

All of the sudden, a beetle appeared!

21 April 2023

We packed beetle into a container to bring to school to for the science teacher.

22 April 2023

You can see the colour change.

24 April 2023

Meanwhile life goes on for the mealworms and the beetle, checking out their snacks. By the way, a mealworm will try to lift a piece of fruit to see if it can hide underneath!