Tag: tenebrio obscurus

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The Dark Mealworm- Tenebrio Obscurus is not a Mini Mealworm

I wrote a post about Tenebrio Obscurus a while back.  You can find that post here.  The gist of the post was that mini mealworms were named incorrectly and I cited sources.    The common name for Obscurus is “Dark Mealworm.  Dark Mealworms, it turns out, have never been sold in mass volumes.  It is not even being grown by growers as feeders or in any fashion it seems.

Dark Mealworms are the larvae of the adult Tenebrio Obscurus.  Until recently, Buffalo Worms were mistakenly being sold as Tenebrio Obscurus, when they are actually Alphitobius diaperinus.  Diaberinus is  indeed a mini mealworm while Obscurus is a large mealworm.  In the video, I place a golden mealworm beetle, Tenebrio Molitor, next to a Tenebrio obscurus beetle and you can see that Tenebrio obscurus, or the Dark Mealworm is a larger beetle.

I also place a large mealworm next to a Dark Mealworm and you can see that the largest large common mealworm  is smaller than the Dark Mealworm larvae.  The difference being that the Dark Mealworm is darker in color and has an exoskeleton that is more like that of Superworms, Zophobas morio.

Please see the pictures and watch the video below and comment.

Dark Mealworm next to Golden Mealworm
Dark Mealworm next to Golden Mealworm

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Tenebrio Obscurus the Dark Mealworm

For a few years a mealworm called Tenebrio Obscurus were all the rage.  What was this mysterious smaller mealworm that Tenebrio Molitor and is it really raised differently?  We bought some from a place in Florida and raised them.  They ate, grew and were breeding just like regular mealworms, but they were smaller.  They liked heat and we started finding them in manure piles, in our chicken coop and all over the place.

We kept track as the new worm increased in popularity and inquiries grew about weather Tenebrio Obscurus was really that or if it was actually a worm known as Buffalo Worms, Alphitobius diaperinus.   The video below was one that we viewed as we sought the answer to the question of what these mini mealworms actually are.

 

After we had our worms and beetles identified by an Entomologist, we began a quest to find true Tenebrio Obscurus.  We scoured the United States and could not find them until I ran into a guy who had P. Ornatus, High Yellow, isopods for sale.  We got to talking and he told me that he had actual Tenebrio Obscurus.

He gave us several worms and we have begun our own Tenebrio Obscurus breeding program.  It will take a while for Dark Mealworms, as true Tenebrio Obscurus are known, to be ready for sale, but we have them and they were reproducing.  We plan to introduce them to insect world as soon as we have sufficient breeding stock.

Once we do, we will over these for sale and, probably for the first time, real Tenebrio Obscurus will be offered to the public as Dark Mealworms.

Here are some links to the actual worm below.  Subscribe with the purple banner above to be contacted when we are in stock.  Pictures will be posted very soon.
Thank you.

http://www.ncbuy.com/flowers/articles/01_10197.html

 

The interesting thing is the size.  These are pictures of Giant Mealworms, Tenebrio Molitor with Dark Mealworms, Tenebrio Obscurus.  They are nearly the same size and the Giant Mealworms are treated.  Large mealworms are smaller than Tenebrio Obscurus.  I can’t wait to get to the point where we can offer these to all of you.