File:Scarabaeus_viettei_01.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- Scarabaeoidea
- Part of
- Scarabaeoidea
- Image
- Scarabaeus laticollis.jpg
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- Dung beetles
- main food source
- feces
- described by source
- Gujin Tushu Jicheng
via Wikidata · CC0
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. All species of dung beetle belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scarabaeinae feed exclusively on feces, that subfamily is often dubbed true dung beetles. There are dung-feeding beetles which belong to other families, such as the Geotrupidae (the earth-boring dung beetle). The Scarabaeinae alone comprises more than 5,000 species.
As they do not belong to a single group sharing a common ancestor, there is a diversity in the behavior of dung beetles, including the iconic dung-rolling behavior revered by Ancient Egyptians as Khepri rolling the sun across the sky.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “dung beetles” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.