Flour beetle
Encyclopedia
Flour beetles are members of the darkling beetle
genus
Tribolium or Tenebrio. They are pests of cereal silos and are widely used as laboratory animals, as they are easy to keep. The flour beetles enjoy wheat and other grains and are adapted to survive in very dry environments and can withstand high amounts of radiation (even more than cockroaches). They are a major pest in the agricultural industry and are highly resistant to insecticides.
The larva
e of T. molitor when full-grown are known as mealworm
s, small specimens and the larvae of the other species are called mini mealworms.
Larva
e are less than a millimetre in length, and are also found in agricultural industries.
was sequenced by the Tribolium Genome Sequencing Consortium. The results were published in Nature Magazine.
An experiment carried out by MythBusters
revealed that they are able to survive 1000 gray
(100,000 rad
), 100 times the immediate lethal dose of radiation for humans, in 10% of the cases.
Darkling beetle
Darkling beetles are a family of beetles found worldwide, estimated at more than 20,000 species. Many of the beetles have black elytra, leading to their common name...
genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Tribolium or Tenebrio. They are pests of cereal silos and are widely used as laboratory animals, as they are easy to keep. The flour beetles enjoy wheat and other grains and are adapted to survive in very dry environments and can withstand high amounts of radiation (even more than cockroaches). They are a major pest in the agricultural industry and are highly resistant to insecticides.
The larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of T. molitor when full-grown are known as mealworm
Mealworm
Mealworms are the larval form of the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor, a species of darkling beetle. Like all holometabolic insects, they go through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult...
s, small specimens and the larvae of the other species are called mini mealworms.
Selected species
- Tribolium castaneum – red flour beetleRed flour beetleThe red flour beetle is a tenebrionid beetle. It is a worldwide stored product pest.Red flour beetles attack stored grain products causing loss and damage...
- Tribolium confusum – confused flour beetleConfused flour beetleThe confused flour beetle , a type of darkling beetle known as a flour beetle, is a common pest insect known for attacking and infesting stored flour and grain...
- Tribolium destructor – destructive flour beetleDestructive flour beetleThe destructive or dark flour beetle , one of the species of darkling beetle known generally as flour beetles, is a common pest insect known for attacking and infesting stored flour and grain....
- Tenebrio molitor – mealworm beetle
- Tenebrio obscurus
Larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e are less than a millimetre in length, and are also found in agricultural industries.
Research
In 2008, the Tribolium castaneum genomeGenome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
was sequenced by the Tribolium Genome Sequencing Consortium. The results were published in Nature Magazine.
An experiment carried out by MythBusters
MythBusters
MythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Beyond Television Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including Discovery Channel Australia, Discovery Channel Latin America, Discovery Channel Canada, Quest...
revealed that they are able to survive 1000 gray
Gray (unit)
The gray is the SI unit of absorbed radiation dose of ionizing radiation , and is defined as the absorption of one joule of ionizing radiation by one kilogram of matter ....
(100,000 rad
Rad (unit)
The rad is a unit of absorbed radiation dose. The rad was first proposed in 1918 as "that quantity of X rays which when absorbed will cause the destruction of the malignant mammalian cells in question..." It was defined in CGS units in 1953 as the dose causing 100 ergs of energy to be absorbed by...
), 100 times the immediate lethal dose of radiation for humans, in 10% of the cases.