Merlin ate 10 mealworms. Son wants the larger types, but I was just curious. I did not buy them. We got to the petstore just as they opened. The superworms were sitting on the counter. We went with the regular size.

Superworms and mealworms are 2 different insects all together. They have come out with a "giant" mealworm though.

Superworms are Zophobas morio, which is the larval stage of the Morio Beetle. They have less chitin than a mealworm, which is the Tenebrio molitor (darkling beetle).

They are also higher in nutritional value in conjunction with being easier to digest.

The giant mealworm is the exact same thing as an ordinary mealworm though. It is just larger.

Just so you know, the real nutritional state of the insects you are feeding depends on the diet you are feeding the insects. if you are buying the insects and just tossing them in straight from the store, they will have a much lower nutritional value than insects you are feeding.

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Rich nailed it. Superworms and mealworms are two entirely different species, and thus have different nutritional content. Both are larvae of darkling beetles, just not the same species of darkling beetle. Like Rich said, the giant mealworms (aka "kingworms") are the same species as mealworms, they're just altered so they grow larger. And, as Rich again pointed out, what you feed the insects will alter their nutritional value. That's why it's important to gutload feeder insects before feeding them to your pets. Basically I didn't add much new information, but two sources are better than one, right?

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Nicely done Rich. I'm starting up a mealworm colony of my own for feeders for my herps. Hopefully they will be plump and nutritious.

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Grammostola rosea 0.1.0
Pandinus imperator 2.0.0
Lampropeltis getula nigrita 0.1.0
Uromastyx maliensis 0.1.0
Rhacodactylus ciliatus 2.2.2
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