Strange pupa in mealworm lot?

Mperor

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 15, 2010
Messages
27
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.
 

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gothra

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 20, 2006
Messages
42
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?
 

Mperor

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 15, 2010
Messages
27
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...
 

asher

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
56
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

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 15, 2010
Messages
27
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

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 15, 2010
Messages
27
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

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
56
I've never had this problem, if it's that small it probably won't do any damage to your tenebrio though.
 
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