Fig. 3

The microbial properties and their response to various feeding substrates (adapted and modified from published literature [5, 115, 117, 118]). The non-feeding substrate column represents the gut nutritional environment where yellow mealworm larvae (YML) are exposed to immediate nutritional challenges, such as fasting. The feeding substrate A column represents an illustration of gut microbial communities of YML generally exposed to cereal-based feeding substrates, such as wheat bran. The feeding substrate B column represents an illustration of gut microbial communities of YML exposed to non-conventional feeding substrates, such as polyethylene and polystyrene wastes