Dung Beetle - Got to love your Job

A Dung Beetle rolls her bounty away. She will lay exactly 1 egg in this ball, bury the treasure and then move on to find another wonderful dung producer.

These species are considered to be an indicator species. If they are found in a specific environment (within their natural range of occurrence), that environment is considered "healthy" and operating as it should. Their lack shows a deficiency in one of the cycles (mainly processing dung and waste). By them burying dung, they also involuntarily enrich soils with nutrients, much more so than if the dung was just left on top of the soil.

comments (5)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

This is an excellent composition and perspective for this creature and its ball. Respect! Posted 10 years ago
1. Living Wild
  
  Lion
  
  Absolutely, thanks for the comment. Yes, they are worthy of praise when it comes to determination and effort. Posted 10 years ago
2. 1. WildFlower
    
    Lion
    
    Dung beetle - Scarabidae is not a species but a family, I'm not even sure if it is correct. There is one wiki page that lists it as a binomial name so I guess that is why the system accepted it as a species, but it should be removed. Posted 10 years ago
  2. 1. travismorhardt
      
      Lion
      
      I was just looking at this as well, WildFlower. I agree that this identification should be removed...Unfortunately there are over 5,000 species of dung beetles. It will be difficult to tell which this is. Posted 10 years ago

hhpaick

Lion

I saw these kind of dung beetle countless time when I was young on the street, under the cow dungs from my home town, Sangju province, Korea. Remind me my childhood. Posted 3 years ago

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