Lately I've been working with a certain type of beetle that gets a bit of a bad rap - the dung beetle. What do you think of when you hear about dung beetles? You're probably grimacing to yourself and thinking about beetles that spend all day swimming around in poo. Well, let me set the record straight - these little beetles are so much cooler and more helpful than that!
Dung beetles are in the family Scarabaeidae, which are the scarab beetles. Scarab beetles were a large part of the culture in ancient Egypt. Egyptians believed that scarab beetles with their balls of dung had a connection to the rising sun each morning.
Today, you might consider dung beetles as dirty, but they actually do a great job of tidying up the planet. After a large animal produces dung, the dung beetles roll up the dung into little balls, which they roll by standing on their front legs and kicking with their back legs. They quickly roll the ball far away from the dung pile, and then burrow with it, "recycling" the dung for nutrients and to rear their young.
Dung beetles in action:
Here's a close-up photo of a dung beetle's incredibly strong front legs:
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scarabaeus_viettei_01.jpg |
Another interesting thing about these beetles use the Milky Way to figure out where they're going while they roll. They can also use the moonlight, but just this year a study reported that dung beetles could still figure out where they were going by orienting themselves to the stars. Here is more information about this study:
By breaking down dung in this way, dung beetles help increase soil health, as well as curbing some of the flies that would have been attracted to the dung pile for reproduction. If you should happen to see one rolling a dung ball, watch him - but let him go along his way.
Happy Friday everyone!
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