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Mealworm Life Cycle Printout Mealworm Life Cycle Label Me! Printout Mealworm Quiz |
Yellow Mealworm/Darkling Beetle Tenebrio molitor |
More Animal Printouts |
The adult is the darkling beetle. |
Anatomy: The tiny, white, bean-shaped eggs are about 2 mm long by .9 mm wide. Larvae are dark yellow with brown bands; they are up to about 35 mm long, have a segmented body, six legs (towards the front of the body) and two antennae. The pupa is white/cream with a large head and a pointed tail (it darkens as it grows). Like all insects, this beetle has a hard exoskeleton, six jointed legs, two antennae, compound eyes, and a body divided into three parts (the head, thorax, and abdomen). The adult is from 12 to 25 mm long and is dark brown.
The mealworm is the larval stage of the darkling beetle.
Life Cycle: The mealworm undergoes complete metamorphosis. The female darkling beetle lays hundreds of tiny, white, oval eggs, which hatch into tiny mealworms (the larval stage) - it takes from 4 to 19 days to hatch. Each mealworm eats a tremendous amount and grows a lot, molting (shedding its exoskeleton) many times as it grows. It then enters the pupal stage (they often over-winter in this stage; this stage lasts up to 9 months). The pupa does not eat and seems inactive, but it is transforming itself into an adult. After pupating, a white adult darkwing beetle emerges from the pupa (this stage lasts from 2-3 weeks up to 9 months, if the pupal stage over-winters) -- it soon turns brown and then almost black. The adult lives for a few months. The entire life cycle takes about a year.
Range: This beetle is found in temperate and other regions around the world.
Classification: Kingdom Animalia (animals), Phylum Arthropoda (arthropods), Class Insecta (insects), Order Coleoptera (beetles), Family Tenebrionidae, Genus Tenebrio, Species T. molitor.
Related Pages:
Darkling Beetle Life Cycle The yellow mealworm is the larval stage of the darkling beetle (Tenebrio molitor). |
Darkling Beetle Life Cycle Label Me! Printout Label the life cycle of the yellow mealworm, from egg to larva to pupa to adult. Or go to the answers. |
Mealworm Quiz Ten questions on the mealworm/darkling beetle. Or go to the answers. |
Beetle Anatomy Label Me! Printout Label a generic beetle's external anatomy on this printout. Answers |
Beetles Beetles are the largest group of insects. Some beetles include the ladybug, scarab beetle, firefly, and the goliath beetle. |
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