What is a dung beetle? Introducing you to this insect
Many people do not know much about the dung beetle. What is a dung beetle? What physical features does it have? What are its living habits like? Below we will introduce the dung beetle to you.
What is a dung beetle?
The dung beetle is also called the shi ke lang, and many people also call it shi ge (gè) lang, tui wan, and so on. It belongs to the order Coleoptera, family Scarabaeidae, subfamily Scarabaeinae. There are about 2300 species of dung beetles in the world, distributed on every continent except Antarctica. Dung beetles can use the polarization of moonlight for orientation to help them find food. They have a certain phototaxis. These insects that burrow into cow dung can roll the dung into balls and push them forward. They mainly feed on animal dung and have the title of “nature's scavenger”, and are also known as “Mo Duo Sheng”.
Physical features of the dung beetle
The body is a slightly flattened oval shape, with a body length of 5-30 mm. The body color is mostly black with a slight sheen, and some are brown. The head is flat, the front limbs are strong, and males have horns on the head. It is a holometabolous insect. The body surface is dark in color, and some have a metallic sheen. The male has a long, curved horn-like projection on top of its head. Dung beetles can use the polarization of moonlight for orientation to help them find food, and they have a certain phototaxis. The insect has deep-set eyes and a high nose, resembling a Qiang or Hu person, with a black shell on its back, like a warrior, hence the names dung beetle and general.
Living habits of the dung beetle:
Food of the dung beetle: Dung Beetle: an insect with a spoon-shaped head that can turn dung into balls. They lay their eggs on these ball-shaped dung piles and bury the eggs. In this way, when the larvae hatch, they have ready-made food available. Most dung beetles are coprophagous, feeding on animal dung, and have the title of “nature's scavenger”. They often make dung into balls, roll them to a safe place to hide them, and then slowly eat them. A single dung beetle can roll a dung ball much larger than its own body. The shi ke lang pushes dung balls in order to reproduce. Although dung smells terrible, for the shi ke lang's babies, it is an indispensable food for sustaining life. Before the babies are even born, the mother has prepared the most abundant food for them. A pile of elephant dung can support 7000 shi ke lang. With so many shi ke lang gathered on one pile of food, how can they remain peaceful with one another? They have their own way of distributing food: each shi ke lang rolls the dung beneath itself into a ball, then rolls this “ration” back to a dug burrow, and then lays eggs on the dung ball for the babies born several days later to enjoy slowly. Therefore, wherever there are shi ke lang, the dung there will be cleaned up completely. The inconspicuous shi ke lang is actually nature's “cleaner” that does the cleaning! We really should say thank you to the shi ke lang. Reproductive patterns of the dung beetle During the reproductive period, the female dung beetle makes the dung ball into a pear shape and lays eggs inside it. The hatched larvae feed on the ready-made dung ball, and only emerge from the soil after developing into adult dung beetles. Phytophagous dung beetles feed on sweet tree sap. After mating between male and female, the female dung beetle lays eggs in leaf mold soil. After about 10 days, the larvae break out of the eggs and feed on leaf mold soil or animal dung. The larvae continuously grow, pupate in July of the second year, and become adults after about 20 days. Dung beetles belong to the class Insecta, order Coleoptera, with a black or dark brown body, a hard exoskeleton on the body surface, well-developed compound eyes, chewing mouthparts, gill-like antennae, 3 pairs of legs suitable for digging, and 2 pairs of wings, with the forewings hardened. Their mode of development is complete metamorphosis. Feeding patterns of the dung beetle: On the African savanna, on the night of the fourth day after rain in the rainy season, thousands upon thousands of dung beetles emerge from the ground. After the heavy rain, elephants greedily enjoy the newly grown plants, but their digestive systems find it hard to bear this sudden increase in load, and quite a lot of the swallowed food is returned to the ground. The giant dung beetle is the largest type of dung beetle, and its food source mainly depends on elephant dung. Every day, elephants leave hundreds of tons of elephant dung on the plains, followed by a great army of dung beetles. Part of the elephant dung is buried underground, and the labor of the dung beetles makes the soil fertile. This is a cyclical process, and the giant dung beetle plays an important role in it.