1. Life cycle of a Mealworm

2. 1st stage of a Meal Worms Life : EGG
The First stage of a mealworm’s life is an egg. The egg is smaller then the picture shown here. The eggs are often very hard to see without the use of a magnifying lens. The colour of the egg is white but dusted with age

3. 2nd Stage: Meal Worm
The second stage of a mealworms life is the larva stage, during this stage, it moves about by crawling. It will shed it’s skin several times and this process is known as moulting. They look weird when they do moulting and their skin has ridges that look like scales.

4. 3rd stage: PUPA
The third stage od a mealworm’s life is a pupa stage. It is white in colour. During this stage, same as the pupa of the butterflies, it sleeps and does not eat at all.

5. 4th Stage: Adult (beetle)
The fourth and last stage of a mealworms life is adult the adult stage. As the beetle grows older, it gets darker in colour. This ‘beetle stage’ is the most active stage in it’s life cycle. To protect themselves from their enemies in this stage, they bite hard and move very fast.

6. Interesting facts: Mealworm
Mealworms are not worms they are larvae
They completely Metamorphous into a darkling beetle.
A female darkling beetle lays 100’s of eggs.
Eggs take 4-19 days to hatch.
Mealworms eat a lot and moult many times.
The pupal stage lasts 2-3 weeks or up to 9 months in winter.
The pupae does not eat.
The adult beetle can live for a few months.

7. Interesting facts: Mealworm
Parts of a mealworm:
Larvae are dark yellow and grow up to 3.5 cm long.
Have six legs.
Two antennae.
Parts of a Darkling Beetle:
Hard exoskeleton.
Six jointed legs.
Compound eyes.
3 body parts- head, thorax and abdomen.
2 antennae.
wings

8. Links: Mealworms