Spontaneous mega-sized mealie

[feathersnuggles]

Tonight I was replacing carrot and apple slices on my mealworm farm and what should appear but a HUGE mealworm...way bigger than anything I've ever seen in my farm. It's about twice the length and width of the regulars. I've been raising mealworms for a while - this is about the 5th generation, since I started. All my mealworms have been regular size.

Question. Has anyone else found a mutant huge mealworm in their breeding program? I can't be the first.

 

[BellevueOmlet]

I haven't but you should breed it to make a mutantly large species

 

[drumstick diva]

Kill it before it spreads!! That's how it starts and then they rise up and take over the world. I think they try feeding people to chickens. I know I won't sleep well ..tonight. Thank goodness you didn't include a photo.

 

[Momagain1]

Quote:
you SO want a photo!!

 

[TriciaHowe]

Quote:
you SO want a photo!!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quick, kill it with fire before it spreads!!! No, not really.

I've never encountered such a thing. The odd thing is that this is your 5th generation, so it's not likely something else that got put into your initial batch of worms. I wonder if it's a developmental problem with that individual worm where juvenile hormone production didn't turn off as it normally would. We definitely want pics!

 

[galanie]

Want Photo of mutant mealie!

 

[feathersnuggles]

OK, OK.

I've found my camera. You guys are just so lucky it's a holiday weekend so I've got nothing better to do than find & dig out mega-mealie and some of his/her friends and take them where they like best -- in full sunshine - for a photo shoot.

Found another mega, that was slightly smaller. You can see the two tiny ones are more like my full regular size mealies, just before they pupate. "King mega-biggie" is nearest the adult.

But I CAN'T believe I'm the only one. boo hoo, that stinks. I wanna know why this happens... and experience group support and so on. Now I might never know.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
LOL! Now with traumatic photos.

 

[kizanne]

Id seperate that mealie and pick some of your other largest ones to try breeding natually larger mealies.