Selection of Supplement Feed and Regulation of Oviposition Period of Zophobas morio (Tenebrionidae)

Abstract

The super mealworm, Zophobas morio, is mainly used as food for pets, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and as snacks. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of temperature, supplementary feeding, and spawning interval on super mealworm rearing. To efficiently rear this species, the insects were bred at a temperature of 27°C or higher and reached a weight of over 0.6 g at 80 days after hatching. Supplementary feed (with high protein content: 10% of soybean meal and 10% of fish meal) enabled larvae to reach a weight of over 0.7 g at 80 days after hatching. Mass rearing of super mealworm requires increase in egg production (i.e., high yield) and uniformity of larvae. Adults were transferred to spawning bases every 5, 10, or 15 days (three treatments), which resulted in a total of 7,256, 5,439, 2,060 hatched larvae, respectively. It is possible to obtain more than 7,000 larvae by transferring the egg-laying frame to the spawning base at intervals of 5 days and with nine spawning operations; this procedure generates larvae weighing over 0.68 g each.