All of the mealworms have turned to pupae. Their skeletons have been shed and they lay around the box. The pupae are not moving. They lay on their backs, pale, and remain still. Their facial features are much more visible now. They look like tiny cream-coloured lobsters out of their shells. Their legs are curled up at their chests. Their tails look identical to lobster tails. Their little eyes are visible now, as are their mouths and feelers. They are sort of adorable, and they look strangely peaceful in this state.
The mealworms have all grown (about 3.5cm now), but one is significantly larger than the others. We have named him Goldilocks. He is a better climber than the others. We predict that he will be the first to change into a pupa.
They have been enjoying the apples we have been feeding them, but do not seem to like raisins at all. Likely because they are dry, and mealworms seem to suck the liquid out of foods. The mealworms play dead when we open the box. This is likely a defense mechanism against predators.
Their scat is black. There are little dung piles all around the box. We clean out the box and then give them fresh apple to eat. They continue to hide in the folds of the box as we clean up around them. They climb over each other to fight for the best hiding spots. Today we adopted six mealworms. They seem to be photosensitive, because when placed in their shoebox home they immediately crawled for cover inside the folded seams of the box. We suspect that they are not afraid of the light, but of being in the light, where predators can see them clearly.
We gave them a mound of oat bran, which they buried themselves in for safety. A few of them have been poking their heads out to see what is going on in their new environment. Some seem more nervous – they hid quicker, and they are not inclined to poke out of the oat bran. In examining them closely, we have noted that they have ten portions of exoskeleton plus a tiny head and tail. They are in average 2.5 cm long, and yellow in colour (closer to toffee near their head and tail). They have six feet, located near the front of their bodies, and are capable of walking frontwards and backwards. They can climb up the box, indicating that their feet have some amount of grip or stickiness. Their tiny faces are too small to get a good look at, but when we placed a piece of apple in the box, they seemed to be sucking on it. Hopefully as they grow, we will be able to see more definition so that we can get a good idea of what their mouths and eyes look like. Questions we have: - How do they breathe? - What do they eat? - How do they reproduce? - Do they sleep? - What is their lifespan? - What are their stages of development? - Are they related to maggots? Measurements: Pink – 2.3 cm Red – 2.5 cm Blue – 2.3 cm Light Blue – 2.3 cm Gold – 2.6 cm Teal – 2.3 cm Neutral – 2.4 cm |