You have so much to discuss I am only going to make a few cursory comments.

The meal worms, I would only feed very light or fresh shed ones, I don't believe they are healthy for long term. I do occasionally feed wax worms.

Horned Lizards are opportunistic and will eat other insect faire just throw in a small wounded moth and find out how fast they go after that.... but if you look at scat contense which I think is a tell tail sign of their normal intake it usually more or less is ants in content, also beetles and even small grasshoppers etc.
Also the fact that they go after other prey shouldn't be surprising, but a long term diet I just ask the question if all the scientific work on scat analysis has determined the content, I think it behooves one to make ants at least the lions share of their diet in order to maintain them well in captivity. But there are people out there that have done this without and I am open to that if thats their but I have always fed mine ants.

With respect to your horned lizard, you can clump up a large mound of damp soil (Home Depot play sand) that borders the hot outer rim of your basking bulb light on the ground and cover it with a large rock and others so she can dug down under and find a warm spot but not hot to deposit the eggs support the rock so it doesn't fall on the animals if she digs under it. The damp soil will also help her she will start digging a hole into the mound, probably under the rock or what ever you place in there.
After she lays you need to collect them and set them up. As a suggestion a 1:1 ration of vermiculite to distilled water or 1:1 1/4 might be good. As long as the eggs grow and do not change then this should work you can always spray a little in the container around the perimeter, don't spray the eggs, and maybe 86-88 degrees for incubation? I would set it more at 88 degrees.
I assume your using a hervobator?

Your observations are very interesting.
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