Metabolic Performance of Mealworms and Black Soldier Fly Larvae Reared on Food and Agricultural Waste and By-Products

Mealworms and black soldier fly (BSF) larvae are two of the most reared insects at an industrial scale. Both may feed on by-products from agricultural and food industries. Feed efficiency is one of the most important aspects of such processes and varies between species and feed substrates and depends on the metabolic performance of the larvae. Compared to each other, both species may hold advantageous capabilities affecting their feed efficiency, likely depending on the feed substrate. We reared mealworms and BSF larvae on a diverse selection of by-products from agricultural and food industries, quantified major metabolic rates across their life spans, and compared their performances. The type of feed substrates had stronger effects on the growth of mealworms than on black soldier fly larvae. Generally, BSF larvae were advantageous in terms of the highest maximal specific growth rate (0.50-0.77 day-1) and feed assimilation rate (0.81-1.16 day-1) and shortest development period (23-25 days) but disadvantageous in terms of metabolic maintenance cost (0.07-0.21 day-1). In mealworms, the maximal specific growth rates were 0.02-0.11 day-1, the highest feed assimilation rates were 0.16-0.37 day-1, and the development period was at least 65-93 days, while maintenance was only 0.02-0.05 day-1. In contrast to the BSF larvae, the specific maintenance rate was weight dependent in the mealworms and lowest in the largest individuals. The combined outcome of these metabolic rates resulted in an average carbon net growth efficiency, NGE*avg of 0.16-0.40 in mealworms and 0.33-0.56 in BSF larvae across their life span. It thus seems that BSF larvae are more versatile and somewhat more efficient at converting diverse feed substrates into growth than mealworms. Differences in NGE*avg affected the substrate conversion efficiencies (i.e., the ratio of the weight gain of the larvae to the reduced weight of feed substrates) and may thus impact the overall outcome of insect farming.