I don’t know much myself about darkling beetle ecology, but the message from Rainbow Worms above gives some clues that they are decomposers.
I’m not sure where they originally came from either, and it seems as though it is one of those species that you see so much frequently, and not in the wild, that some of us don’t even think about them being found in their natural habitats. I didn’t even think about this for years, and didn’t know much about them anyways.
The native country of T. molitor does not seem to be scientifically known; however, it is certainly not native to the United States.
It is an omnivorous plantlitter grazer in the wild. Like most other grainpest Tenebrionidae (and unlike most non-grainpest Tenebrionidae) it is highly associated with eutrophicated habitat in the wild, especially vertebrate droppings (but calling it a dung beetle would be a stretch, and it appears unable to effectively compete with carrion-specialist insects).
Rainbow Mealworms’ claim that it requires grain and does not thrive well in animal dens is thus highly dubious. Also, it is not a true desert tenebrionid (this is another popular misconception). It lives in often-arid temperate forests and is cryotolerant.
Long story short, wild (including wild nonnative) populations inhabit dry treeholes or leaflittered forest floors, preferably one occupied or formerly occupied by nesting vertebrates. Their eutrophication preference seems to be a major reason that they are uncommonly noticed outside of captivity.
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WARNING TO ALL WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN
If you are raising/breeding Tenebrio molitor I suggest keeping an eye out for the occasional aggressive adults. I have had some (3) adult mealworm beetles in an old reptile tank, and they were getting along fine until I noticed that one of the females was very gravid.
Two hours later (this was earlier today) and I, uh, I saw something that I am not happy about. One of the larger adult males had basically pinned down the gravid female under a rock that has a wide hole in it. And here is the bad part.
This male tore off the gravid female’s thorax and head. And then proceeded to consume the gravid female’s abdomen.
I do not know why this suddenly happened since these three have always gotten along, and are actually some of my oldest (4.5 months in four days) Tenebrio molitor that I have ever raised, and are fed regularly.
So, be careful of the occasional aggressive ones, it won’t be pretty.
EDIT: It turns out while I was writing this, another overly aggressive adult just killed two females, one gravid, the other was teneral. Both killed the same way, forearms around the “neck” -or really just between the thorax and abdomen.
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Everyone running a breeding program needs to be willing to cull.
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Unfortunately, yes. That is something occasionally needed to keep the other organisms safe.
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