I mentioned when I started this blog that it was about plants “and things” on my chrome shelves in my apartment, and today I will be talking about the “things” as well as the plants. But I’ll start with the plants first and then move on to the things – Superworms – that take up residence on my plant shelves too. 🙂
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Even after being very diligent in trying to insure the first flowers of my Porcupine Tomato were fertilized, the first flowers are starting to fall off. It irks me a bit, but I also enjoy a good mystery. There are multiple reasons it could be happening and I need to figure it out. Too hot? Too dry? Not enough nutrients? Improper pollination? I’ll have to narrow down the reasons, but I’ve had peppers (related) do the same a few times. |
| Yesterday the first Red flower of my Cypress Vine had opened up, but I accidently messed it up so didn’t photograph it. Today though, the first White flower has opened up and I photographed it. Now that I know I have both Red and White flowers, I’m hopeful that I’ll also have a Pink one among the other three vines that haven’t bloomed yet. I want to be able to save seed from all three colors since I plan to sell them. I need to work out a method of marking each bloom with yarn as I pollinate them, so when the seed pods ripen I can save the Red, Pink and White separately in order to mix them evenly as well as sell them individually. |
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I commented yesterday that my Hideous Sea Onion was thrashing around wildly instead of securing itself to the chrome pole like I had hoped, so I used yarn to secure it to see if it would get the hint. Well, it did! Since loosely securing it with yarn, it has wrapped around the pole twice. Another name for the Hideous Sea Onion is the Climbing Onion. And now it is behaving like it is supposed to. In a week or so, once it is showing it is properly secured to the pole, I’ll remove the yarn securing it to insure it doesn’t accidentally cut into the vine. Along with this vine is also the Mouse Melon, but I do not imagine them interfering with one another in any meaningful way. In fact, I’m really looking forward to letting them both climb up my chrome shelves and possibly even ramble across the front of a shelf or two over the summer. |
| My Nepenthes alata tropical carnivorous pitcher plant has well over a dozen new leaves, each of which with a small pitcher bud at their ends. They will remain like this for a while, but in a month or so the buds will begin swelling and expanding into large hanging pitchers filled with digestive enzymes in liquid, ready to devour all manner of insects and pieces of meat and fish food flakes I decide to feed it. I’ve grown these for years and in the past would feed them very small pieces of unsalted pork and turkey, and sprinkle small amounts of fish food flakes into the pitchers. Of course, occasionally I’d give them actual insects as well, their natural food they normally subsist on. |
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These are my Superworms soon after giving them some small potato wedges to eat. They are the larvae of the Darkling Beetle (Zophobas morio). They are extremely popular as a highly nutritious food source for reptiles and amphibians. In some parts of the world they are also used as human food. I’m keeping them to sell and also use their poop, called “frass”, as an excellent fertilizer for my houseplants. Superworms will stay in this state as long as they are kept together like this. In order for them to transition into beetles they must be individually isolated and denied all access to food and water. |
| When isolated, in a week they curl up into the shape of a C (as seen in the right compartment), and then after another week they split open, revealing themselves as pupa (as seen in the left compartment). They remain pupa for about two weeks before splitting open again as adult beetles. |
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Here I was able to capture everything that can go right and wrong when Darkling Beetles transition. The two black ones on the left were larvae that were either not old enough to transition, or didn’t have enough energy stored up. Either way, the sad truth is – they starved to death. The one in the shape of a “C” is completely rearranging its insides at this very moment. Soon its skin will rip open and the pupa will be ready to slumber for two more weeks as it literally builds its body within the pupa casing. When ready, its exterior will rip open as well. This time as an adult Darkling Beetle. |
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| I collect all the pupa together and monitor them closely for the following two weeks. Then the adult beetles begin to eclose. That is the term to describe the act of emerging from a pupal casing. At that time I move the beetles as they emerge/eclose into a breeder box. Basically it’s a small plastic tub. The beetles cannot climb the walls nor can they fly. It’s quite bizarre because they do have wings. But after millennia of hiding under logs and piles of dead leaves, they just forgot how to use them! Oh! I almost forgot… The pupa can and do move. They often startle me when I’m handling them. They will “flick” their lower half when they are jostled around. But for the most part they are completely motionless. During the last day or two of their pupal state, they darken and then begin “pulsing” as they begin emerging from the pupa as beetles. |
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I’m absolutely fascinated with the microcosm we generally pay no mind to. I love to see incredible animals like this (yes, insects are animals) up close and personal. Recognizing that their entire universe may consist of less than a grain of sand, or just a square inch for other creatures, And on and on. I compare it with the idea of a multiverse and multiple realities. And in that regard, I’m not wrong. Because they do live in an entirely different world from us; a different reality. |
| Here’s a pupa about 24 hours before emerging as a Darkling Beetle. They go through a similar process as butterflies do, except instead of a pupa, butterflies emerge from a chrysalis. I collect these pupa as they appear in their isolation chambers and place them all into a single container to keep an eye on. As they start emerging as beetles, I remove them and place them into another container. I have to do this because they are quite hungry and may eat other pupa that haven’t emerged yet. The entire transitional process from larva (Superworm) to adult (Darkling Beetle) doesn’t take very long. One week from larva to C shape, one week from C shape to pupa and two weeks from pupa to beetle. So about one month or a little less from larva to beetle. It’s truly fascinating to see the incredible changes to the structure of these creatures and to recognize that, though extraordinarily different, they are the same animal. |
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I place potato slices and lettuce leaves into the container to provide the adults with a food and water source. As you can see, these are two different colors – light and dark. That has to do with their age. When they first emerge they are white then slowly darken to brown and eventually to black. In about two weeks they will be old enough to begin breeding and at that time I’ll make “egg baskets” of corrugated cardboard they will deposit their eggs in for me to transfer to yet another container so the tiny Superworms won’t get eaten by their parents! I’ll discuss that later. |
| Here’s one of the fully mature Darkling Beetles (Zophobas morio). When they emerge from their pupa casing, their bodies are soft and they need a day or two to harden up and produce the melanin necessary to make their black coloration. During that time is when they change from white to coal black and undergo sclerotization as well, which is the hardening of their exoskeleton. But I’m sure you already knew all of that, right? Anyway, I had a heck of a time trying to get a photo that wasn’t just a black blob. As you can see in this image, this one was eating a piece of lettuce instead of one of the harder potato wedges. |
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There are a lot of people offering Superworms for sale online as a high-protein food source for reptiles and amphibians, and also Superworm poop, called “frass” is highly sought-after as a form of fertilizer for plants. I myself use it regularly to feed my own houseplants!
