Why Do Dung Beetles Roll Dung Balls? Understanding the Reasons Behind It in One Article
Dung beetle is the common name for scarab beetles of the dung-feeding kind, also known as shi ge lang, shi bi fang, gun fen lang and so on. There are about 2,300 species of dung beetles in the world, distributed on every continent except Antarctica. They can use the polarization of moonlight to navigate and help them find food. Most are coprophagous, able to roll dung into balls and push them forward. Let us take a look below at why dung beetles roll dung balls!
Why do dung beetles roll dung balls?
Most dung beetles are coprophagous, feeding on animal dung. They often form the 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. Dung beetles also roll dung balls in order to reproduce. However foul-smelling the dung may be, for a dung beetle's baby it is an indispensable food for sustaining life. Before the baby is even born, the mother dung beetle has prepared the most abundant food for it.
Are dung beetles pests?
Dung beetles use their shovel-shaped head and paddle-shaped antennae to roll dung into a ball, sometimes as big as an apple. In early summer, dung beetles bury themselves and their dung balls in underground chambers and feed on them. The female lays eggs in the dung ball, and the hatched larvae also feed on it. A dung beetle can eat more than its own body weight in food within 24 hours. Because they can accelerate the process of converting dung into substances usable by other organisms, they are beneficial to humans and are also regarded as nature's "cleaners" that keep things tidy.
What role do dung beetles play?
Dung beetles can clean up animal dung, suppress other pests that feed on dung, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to a report by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, dung beetles save the United States cattle industry 380 million dollars a year in dung cleanup costs. In Australia, the native dung beetle species only liked to feed on small pellets of dung such as kangaroo droppings, and did not like the dung of introduced cattle and sheep. From 1965 to 1985, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia began the Australian Dung Beetle Project, which improved the problem of dung accumulation on Australian pastures and at the same time reduced harmful bush flies by about 90%.