Q 01/05

Which packaging plastic did lab mealworms live on in a 2015 study that stunned waste researchers?

A) Styrofoam

B) Bubble wrap

C) Cling film

D) Nylon rope

Answer · why

A) Styrofoam

Styrofoam was thought to be non-biodegradable until that study, in which mealworms fed nothing else stayed as healthy as those on a normal diet.

Q 02/05

Mealworms were among the first Earth creatures to circle the Moon, aboard a 1968 probe from which country?

A) The USA

B) The USSR

C) West Germany

D) France

Answer · why

B) The USSR

The USSR flew them on Zond 5, which swung round the Moon and splashed down in the Indian Ocean with its living cargo safe.

Q 03/05

Which North American birds do nest-box fans famously tempt into their gardens with dishes of live mealworms?

A) Hummingbirds

B) Goldfinches

C) Bluebirds

D) Mourning doves

Answer · why

C) Bluebirds

Bluebirds take mealworms so readily that fans use them to lure pairs to a nest box and to feed chicks when bad weather hides wild insects.

Q 04/05

What is the name of the motionless, non-feeding stage a mealworm enters before emerging as an adult beetle?

A) Nymph

B) Pupa

C) Grub

D) Maggot

Answer · why

B) Pupa

Pupa is the stage in which the mealworm's body is rebuilt into a beetle's; it starts out pale and darkens just before the adult breaks free.

Q 05/05

Which of these insects shares the mealworm's four-stage life cycle, with a motionless resting stage before adulthood?

A) Grasshopper

B) Dragonfly

C) Cockroach

D) Butterfly

Answer · why

D) Butterfly

Butterfly and mealworm both pass from egg to larva to a resting stage and then adult, which is why the young look nothing like their parents.