Dear colleague,

I have worked on this model organism. We can distinguish sex of T. molitir only at pupal stage.

Best regards,

N. Soltani

Dear Soltani,

Have you tried to distinguish on egg stage?

Could you please share methods of distinguishing at pupa stage?

Sincerely,

Ilya Grigoryev

No; but it seemed difficult on eggs. Concerning the pupae see atatched photos showing the morphological differences between sex in ventral extremity of abdomen.

Best wishes,

N. Soltani

I think its very difficult to distinguish between sex in the egg and larva stage. You can watch the diffrence if you fech since the pupa stage (nymphal and adult stages).

In theory one should be able to run a genetic test using some method like PCR. Looking at chromosomes using microscopy might also work. However, I would expect that all these methods are lethal and you might have to develop them.

Two publication can help you on sexueldimorphism on eggs stage:

- Bhattacharya, A. K., Ameel, J. J. & Waldbauer, G. R. 1970. A method for

sexing living pupal and adult yellow mealworms. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 63, 1783.

- Font, E., & Desfilis, E. (2003). Courtship, mating, and sex pheromones in the mealworm beetle (Tenebrio molitor). In Exploring Animal Behavior in Laboratory and Field (pp. 43-58).

it was possible on chicken eggs using morphometric methods.

read more on .

http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbca/v15n3/06.pdf