Dung beetles love manure. The Egyptians believed that the scarabs rolled the sun in the sky. Humanity invented a wheel movement in 3500 g. BC.e., And the Earth beetles moved dung balls using this technology 50 million years before the appearance of the pyramids.
The easiest way to move something is to roll a ball. The manure is sticky, therefore, when he rolls, collects even more particles of manure. This is similar to creating parts of a snowman.
Why manure and how the dung heaps differ
This is an exciting sight, a tiny beetle pushes a huge dung ball. Dung beetles roll balls from manure, hence their name. They extract nutrients and feces from feces. They like manure from herbivores, as it is full of nutrients. On the contrary, the manure of carnivorous predators has a slight nutritional value. But the best manure is produced by omnivorous animals that feed on plants and animals.
Dung beetles prefer the most “fragrant” manure, including feces chimpanzees and people.
For what purposes does manure serve
Having made a fresh, dung ball, beetles choose a place and pull out a hole, buried it in the ground, and the female puts it in the mink in the eggs. After the output of the eggs, the larvae of dung beetles feed on harvested manure.
Why dung beetles are so hardworking
Unfortunately, such food is not very nutritious. In total, the beetle rolls and hides manure, which is 250 times heavier than it. For a beetle and offspring you need a lot of food, so huge balls rolled tiny dung beetles.
Not all beetles called dung, roll the droppings. There are more than 7,000 types of dung beetles, each of which evolved and developed its specialization in the handling of the coquesty.
Types of dung beetles
Rolling
This is the most iconic group of beetles, they actually ride manure in the balls and are incredibly selective regarding the place of residence and masonry of eggs, therefore they overcome the distance up to 200 m before bury the ball in the ground.
Shrews
These dung beetles do not run with a bunch of manure 10 times higher than their weight. Instead, they form a ball, and dig manure where they found it.
Satisfied
The third group is just digging in manure, wherever he lay. There are dung beetles that do not eat a drop, prefer decaying fruits, rotting plants or mushrooms that grow from manure.
Only 10% of beetles roll dung balls. The bulk of the species of beetles makes balls and leaves where they found feces.
Appearance of a dung beetle
Arthropods live up to 3 years in nature. Their size is not the same, they are found from tiny microscopic insects to large 5-cm bugs that roll manure on African deserts.
All types of dung beetle have dark bodies closed by a protective shell that protects against falls and scratches, but not from predators. Dung beetles, like most other arthropods, walk remarkably on the ground, but they have wings. When the dung beetle is in danger, it spreads its wings and flies away.
How dung beetles start offspring
Raising the ass up, males release pheromone, which warns females about a delicious reward that awaits them. Females need a juicy ball of coquerile, in which they lay eggs. The female produces only 5 eggs throughout her life, so she is legible in relations.
Options for marriage rituals
Cavalier rolls manure, the lady follows him. Some females travel to the top of a dung ball, so the male pushes even more weight! Some males push the ball into the tunnel, stand on their heads, release pheromone, lure the female into a dug nest.
The larva hatched from the egg is fed by a dung ball from the inside, the beetlers eat the outer side of the ball.
