Week one with our mealworms has come to a close, and I was able to make some interesting observations about our new "pets". There was not much to see initially. The mealworms were kind of in a frozen state when I first put them into their new environment. A little later that evening, however, they were moving around. It was interesting to see what came out of the container they came in. There were the living mealworms (as can be seen in the picture above) as well as what looked to be the skins of mealworms (looked to be shed like a snake does) and also some mealworms that appeared to be dead and were quite dark.

The mealworms look quite similar to normal worms. They are a light brown, kind of amber color, for the most part. They

have a range of different colors as well, some with a darker and lighter end. They are tunnelers

and like to move around through their habitat. One end of the worm, on the bottom side, has several sets of legs that they use to pull the rest of their body around. They also seem to have the "play dead" defense mechanism. When I changed their environment and was weeding through the oats to find them, they would almost try and move until I touched them with something. They would hold their shape for sometime on top of the new oats until they felt there was no longer a threat. Although there is not much to see on the surface, it seems there is quite a lot going on.

The initial stimulus that brought about activity in the mealworms was a potato. When I first put a chunk of potato in, some mealworms started to kind of gravitate to it. They started eating at the potato and made indents in it, where they either ate or sucked the liquid out of it. The initial potato was really the only time I observed this happening, though. I also added some moist, wheat bread, which also got some initial response and movements, but they didn't do much with subsequent bread or a carrot.

I was not able to observe the mealworms a lot besides those initial encounters. They seem to prefer staying under the oats. It often seems that there is not much movement coming from them, but there is a little. Sometimes they will come up to investigate a new food or water source, or they will move under they oats and you just have to see those oats move. They respond to tapping under the container with a little more movement. I think for future weeks, there should be less oats in the habitat to allow for more observations.