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Faculty Mentor

Amy Keagy, EdD

Faculty Mentor Department

Department of Biology

Abstract

Darkling beetles (Tenebrio molitor) are holometabolic insects. Darkling beetle is the common name of the large family of beetles Tenebrionidae which has more than 20,000 species. The T. molitor species gets its name from the yellowish appearance of the larvae. During its lifespan, a darkling beetle experiences a complete metamorphosis in four distinct stages: Egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The eggs hatch within 4 to 19 days after the female oviposits. It takes about 3 – 4 months for an egg to develop into an adult, or the beetle stage.

During the adult stage, the beetles are initially whitish and pale orange but very quickly turn dark brown to black. Beetles can reach to around 13 mm in length. These beetles share the same characteristics of most insects, having a head, thorax, antennae, wing shields, and six legs. They have linear grooves that are evenly divided and run along the abdomen. It is also one of my favorite insects. I illustrated this beetle using the stippling method.

I am a senior at the University of North Florida, majoring in biology and minoring in creative writing and public and professional writing. I love beetles, and the T. molitor beetle is my favorite beetle. Tenebrio molitor is a fascinating insect–mealworms, the larval form, can eat and consume plastics. The other interesting fact about these animals is that the first Moon mission to include animals, Zond 5, which was a spacecraft of the Soviet Union, carried mealworms. I conducted years of research on T. molitor, so this is an insect that I observed and drew many times. I also often include this insect in my surrealist paintings, but this was my first scientific illustration of a darkling beetle.

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