Strange pupa in mealworm lot?

[Mperor]

Hello friends,

As many in my mealworm colony starts pupating, I discovered this... bizarre looking pupa in the mealworm colony.

It looks exactly like a mealworm, but its size is absolutely tiny, compared to all the other pupas.

Is this an actual mealworm, or... is it some kind of intruder?

I do recall when I set up my colony, there were two very small, darkish worms that I thought looked very much like baby mealworms.

Could they be an intruder species?

There were only two of them, so I can easily hunt them down.

 

[gothra]

Its still a mealworm pupa, but it is unlikely that this one can change into beetle so you can throw that away. I get these sometimes, don't know what caused it - maybe the worm is not full grown when it changed?

 

[tarantulagooroo]

Are you sure it won't grow into a beetle? I thought that was the stage before the beetle?

 

[Mperor]

It is, but this pupa is... about 33% the size of a 'normal' pupa.

It's as if a baby mealworm decided to turn itself into a pupa before it even reached the last instar...

 

[tarantulagooroo]

All the meal worms I get will eventually turn to this?

 

[NevularScorpion]

looks like a molded pupa

 

[asher]

It seems normal enough to me. If there were smaller and darker worms, they were probably just younger larvae. This pupa may turn into a smaller beetle, it may fail altogether - I've never had it happen to me. Anyway it's unlikely to be an intruder. Keep an eye on it just in case though.

 

[Mperor]

I've quarantined it in its own container.

Thing is, I've never seen baby mealworms, so I don't know how they're supposed to look like.

I saw two worms that were much darker in color, and much smaller than the other mealworms. I just assumed they were babies. I guess we'll see!

Everybody else is pupating now. I'd say about 80% of all the worms have already transformed into pupaes now.

Any general idea of how long they'd stay this way before turning into beetles?

I've read anywhere between 1-3 weeks.

 

[Mperor]

Update, friends...

That tiny pupa... turned into a tiny beetle! What the hell? lol

The beetle is about half the size of a grain of rice. It's very active, and looks just like all its bigger 'cousins'.

Should I be worried? lol

 

[asher]

I've never had this problem, if it's that small it probably won't do any damage to your tenebrio though.