When in large groups, waxworms can overtake even the most formidable colony of bees. The adults lay up to 300 eggs in the crevices of beehives at a time. They produce this silk using a gland underneath their head and expel it through small structures known as “spinnerets.”Īnother unique thing about wax worms is their affinity to beehives. Their silk is essential to their life cycle because they produce it as webbing for two important purposes - being the provision of a surface over which larvae can walk and being used as the material to construct a cocoon around the larvae as they develop into their pupal form. Surprisingly, wax worms have no lungs! But what does that have to do with anything? Well, the aforementioned spiracles take the place of the lungs, taking in oxygen from the surrounding environment and allowing them to be distributed throughout the waxworm via bodily fluids.Īs we mentioned previously, waxworms, just like all moths and especially their relative feeder insects, silkworms, produce silk. Interestingly, waxworm tails also have a clasper (located on the 13th segment)! This insect's entire body is covered in stiff hairs, also referred to as “bristles,” along with rows of spiracles (small openings) on either side of the body. Claspers are muscular pads that hold the larvae mobilized, allowing it to hold onto any given surface it may be walking across. The importance of these unique structures is the presence of the “claspers" on their bases. There is one pair of prolegs each for abdominal segments 3-6. Interestingly, their body is different from some of the most popular feeder species due to their “prolegs,” which are four pairs of extremities – similar to legs – distributed across their many segments. The body of the waxworm has 13 segments: the head, 3 thoracic segments and 9 abdominal segments, along with 6 legs. Because wax worms are so soft, they're a great alternative for younger – or elder – reptiles that may need a bit more help in chewing and digesting their food. Waxworms are much softer than other feeder insects, such as mealworms, and must be treated more gently.
They are nondescript moths with segmented bodies that are colored either white, tan, gray or brown. Despite their name, greater wax moths are only about 3/4" in length (although some can reach a maximum of 1” long). Wax worms are the larval stage of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella.
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