Dung Beetle

Dung beetles (also sometimes known as scarabs) are not afraid to get their hands dirty.

Their entire lives revolve around interacting with dung in some way. They bury or feed upon much of the leftover waste of other animals, which has numerous environmental benefits.

It cleans up the excrement from the environment, controls the fly population, and also helps to enrich the soil. Dung beetles are one of nature’s major scavengers in just about every ecosystem on the planet.

They are truly a cornerstone species.

5 Incredible Dung Beetle Facts!

• The scarab was a major element of ancient Egyptian artwork and jewelry. It seemed to have some associations with Khepri, the god of the rising sun, who was said to roll up the sun over the horizon every day.
• Dung beetles are one of the few types of insects to exhibit any kind of parental care. The mother is usually the one who takes care of the young, but in some species, the father plays a role as well. When the father is involved, this usually means that the pair is more likely to mate for life, whereas most dung beetles find a new mate every year.
• Dung beetles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. Scientists have even found fossilized dung balls about the size of a tennis ball dating back millions of years.
• Dung beetles can fly several miles in the air to search for the ideal excrement.
• One of the most incredible facts is that dung beetles are thought to orient themselves by using the stars of the Milky Way as their guide. They may be one of the few insects with this amazing ability.

Species, Types, and Scientific Names

Dung beetles actually belong to a few different families. The scientific name for the largest family of dung beetles is Scarabaeidae. This is thought to derive from the Latin term for scarab. The other major family of dung beetles is called Geotrupidae. There are around 8,000 species, although not all of them use dung at all.

Beyond their taxonomical classification, the dung beetles are also generally grouped together by their behavior. There are three major groups: the dung rollers, the dung tunnelers, and the dung dwellers. Rollers, as the name suggests, will roll up the dung into a ball and push it back to their home to feed the larvae or eat it themselves.

Sometimes, in order to attract a mate, the male will try to offer the female the largest possible dung ball he can create, perhaps as a demonstration of his strength.

The tunneler, by contrast, will dig down into the excrement, sometimes burying a portion of it underground. The dweller will feed or lay its eggs on top of the dung pile.

Evolution and Origins

Recent research suggests that the dung-eating beetles’ original diet may have come from reptiles. By studying fossils from the past and DNA samples from 450 contemporary species of scarab beetles, researchers have concluded that these beetles evolved to feed on dung over 115 million years ago, which is 30 million years earlier than previously estimated.

Present-day dung beetles come from ancestors that ate the poop of dinosaurs and early mammals, or beetles that were already used to consuming the dung of mammals from the Cretaceous period. Our goal is to raise awareness about extinctions that are not easily seen in fossils.

Furthermore, There is a theory that the introduction of flowering plants in the diet of dinosaurs created a more edible type of dung which provided a new niche for evolution and may have led to the evolution of dung beetles as we know them today.

Different Types

• Scarabaeus sacer
• Onthophagus taurus
• Euoniticellus intermedius
• Onthophagus gazella
• Scarabaeus viettei
• Scarabaeus zambesianus
• Deltochilum valgum
• Onitis aygulus
• Onthophagus nigriventris

Appearance

These beetles are small insects, measuring anywhere between half an inch and 2.5 inches in size, with a fairly wide shell and long flight wings folded under the hard outer wings. They come in many different colors, including black, metallic green, and red.

Many of the males have horn-like structures on their heads and thorax that enable them to fight each other for access to mates. Spurs on the legs help them roll dung balls as well.

Habitat

These beetles are found all over the world. They are primarily native to forests, grasslands, prairies, farmlands, and even deserts.

Diet

These beetles are coprophagous insects; this means they feed almost exclusively on excrement. Some species will roll the dung back to the nest, where the female will deposit the eggs directly on the ball. Some species will simply feed where the dung is deposited without creating any balls.

What eats the dung beetle?

Depending on where they live, the beetle is preyed upon by all kinds of predators, including small birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and even other insects. Most species don’t have any elaborate defense against predators except for running away or hiding.

What does the dung beetle eat?

Most of these beetles consume feces at some point in their lives, but not just any old dung will do. They are picky about their food; they are, in a way, dung connoisseurs. Dung beetles like to specialize in the excrement of certain animals and refuse to eat other types of excrement unless necessary.

They naturally gravitate toward feces from herbivorous animals like cows, elephants, or certain monkeys, because it provides more nutritional value thanks to its undigested plant matter. Moreover, they prefer fresh dung over stale dung; some beetles wait in anticipation for their favorite animal to drop excrement.

While feces consumption is the defining feature of this beetle, some species within the same families have also been observed to adopt a more carnivorous lifestyle by feeding on both live and dead prey.

True predators display some interesting behavior. Upon finding suitable prey like an ant or a millipede, they will decapitate the head and roll the body around like a pile of dung. Because they lack the necessary mouthparts of a carnivorous animal, they will quite literally pry the body apart. Millipedes appear to be a favorite food because they’re very common and slow-moving.

For a complete analysis of the diets of dung beetles, make sure to read our comprehensive guide ‘What Do Dung Beetles Eat?’

Prevention

These beetles are generally not a problem for most people. They’re even a huge asset for farmers and ranchers because they clean up most of the excrement leftover by livestock. However, on the occasion that you’re trying to recycle animal feces for fertilizer, dung beetles might be a problem. In these cases, some kind of chemical treatment and/or spray should be sufficient to remove the unwanted dung beetles.