How Do Dung Beetles Mate? A Detailed Guide to Dung Beetle Mating Methods
If you want to breed dung beetles, you must first be clear about how dung beetles mate, so let us take a look at the mating methods of dung beetles below.
The mating environment of dung beetles:
Dung beetles, most famous perhaps for their habit of eating dung. However, did you know that for dung beetles, dung is not only a food source, but also an indispensable and important part of their mating behavior. Dung beetles of different species and different living environments have different mating seasons. In West Africa, in the 3-4 weeks after the rainy season, wherever there is animal dung, dung beetles can be seen everywhere.
Factors affecting dung beetle mating:
The temperature and humidity changes brought by rainfall will also make dung beetles pour out in full force, but whether they reproduce still depends on whether the quality of the dung is high. During the 6-8 weeks of spring, the quality of dung is the best. The mating season of dung beetles is generally very short. When it comes to mating behavior, some dung beetles dig holes under the dung, some push it along, and some like to live in the dung.
How dung beetles mate:
The female digs a tunnel under the dung and piles up some food inside. The male enters the tunnel and is responsible for guarding the entrance. If other males dare to come in, the male will greet them with head-butts and shoves. Generally speaking, the ones that ultimately gain mating rights are the dung beetles with the largest body size and the largest horns on their heads.
Some other smaller male dung beetles without horns have come up with a very clever method. They dig a tunnel of their own nearby, bypass the male responsible for guarding, and quietly come to the female's side, mating with the female while no one is paying attention. Interestingly, these smaller dung beetles have more sperm, so they have a greater probability of becoming fathers.
In addition to these general mating behaviors, after the male dung beetle inserts its sexual organ into the female's sexual organ, it will leave a sperm packet called the [aedeagus] in the female's birth canal, and then the female places the fertilized eggs into a hatching ball made of dung.
Dung rollers:
Dung rollers do not dig holes. The male makes dung into a round ball and pushes it along. If the female takes a liking to him, she jumps onto the dung ball for a free ride. After the male pushes the dung ball to an ideal location, he starts playing the [guard the dung ball and mate] map, preventing other males from pushing the dung ball away or even dropping it somewhere else.
Once a suitable location is found, the couple bury the dung ball in the soft soil, and the two dung rollers begin to mate. After mating, the fertilized eggs are laid inside the dung ball.
Dung dwellers:
This type of dung beetle is the laziest. After the fertilized eggs are wrapped in a hatching ball, they are directly buried in fresh dung or hidden under the dung.
Each fertilized egg is wrapped in a hatching ball made of dung. Some larger dung beetles produce only 1-2 offspring a year, while other species produce dozens of offspring a year. In some cases, the female will even live in the dung to care for the hatching larvae.