What do dung beetles eat? A detailed look at their feeding habits
The dung beetle is the common name for the scarab, also known as shigulang, cart pusher, black ox, and so on. There are more than 20,000 species in the world, and they are widely distributed across the globe; their footprints can be said to be found on every continent except Antarctica. The most famous of them, the scarab (sacred scarab), lives in Egypt. Let us take a look below at what dung beetles eat!
What do dung beetles eat?
Most dung beetles are coprophagous, feeding on animal droppings, and have earned the title of "nature's scavengers". They often roll 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, so wherever there are dung beetles, the dung there will be cleaned up completely. Female dung beetles in the breeding season shape the dung ball into a pear shape and lay their eggs inside it. The hatched larvae feed on the ready-made dung ball until they develop into adult dung beetles and emerge from the soil.
Are dung beetles pests?
Dung beetles use their shovel-like heads and paddle-shaped antennae to roll dung into a ball, which can sometimes be as big as an apple. In early summer, dung beetles bury themselves and the dung ball in underground chambers and feed on it. 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 that other organisms can use, 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 droppings, 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 U.S. cattle industry 380 million dollars a year in dung cleanup costs. In Australia, the native dung beetle species preferred 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 launched 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%.