How Body Size of Tenebrio molitors affects CO2 Production

Abstract

We performed an experiment to test how the size of mealworms affects their metabolic rate. Our hypothesis is that mealworms of different sizes held at room temperature will produce different levels of CO2. Because they are ectotherms, the smaller mealworms will have to work harder than the larger mealworms to maintain their temperature. In our experiment we measured the amount of CO2 generated by the two different sizes of mealworms and used that to calculate the metabolic rate. The results of our experiment did not support our hypothesis because both the small and large mealworms in the CO2 chamber had readings that fluctuated in the room temperature chamber.