Mealworm premature pupa?

[jfreels]

So in my mealworm "rack" I have the beetles on top, their offspring on the bottom and in the middle, medium mealworms.

I had originally purchased the medium mealworms as smalls, but they have grown. They are all about a half inch. Well last night I checked on them, a lot of them had molted and I cleaned up the shed. Well I came across one that had pupated. Then when looking more, I found about a half dozen more.

What's up with that? The last mealworms that pupated were all over an inch. Am I going to have midget beetles? Could they not be mealworms? I'll try and get some pics tonight. The pupa are at least half the size of the pupa I had when I raised my first beetles.

 

[AlexB]

it happens, don worry, some of my worms pupate really big while other really small, where do you got the worms? are u sure they re tenebrio molitor? cause there's a species that looks the same but is smaller in size

 

[Kristi23]

I get all different sized ones. I usually throw the small ones out and just let the larger ones change to beetles.

 

[jfreels]

I am not sure exactly what they are, and my source may not either. Though I would think that if I purchase large mealworms from them, then the small mealworms are just a younger generation.

I bought the original large mealworms to start my colony at Pet Supplies Plus. Later, I bought (same store) a lot of smalls so I could keep feeding my reptiles.