Dung Beetles - Are they ACTUALLY gross? Yeah....but still cool!

By Samson Lee - May 29, 2024

When you mention insects to someone, you may often times find their reaction to be one of disgust and aversion. How can we make that reaction even more extreme? How about we throw feces into the mix? I want to discuss the existence of the group of beetles known as the Dung Beetles. Despite their less than appealing lifestyle, they are actually highly beneficial to the ecosystems in which they reside – and besides that, they are just kind of cool.

Dung Beetles are a group of insects that fall under the order Coleoptera (Beetles) and under the superfamily Scarabaeoidae (Scarabs). Under the Scarab superfamily comes two smaller families known as Geotrupidae (Earth-boring dung beetles) and Scarabaeidae (Scarab beetles). Under Scarabaeidae comes two subfamilies known as Scarabaeinae (True Dung Beetles) and Aphodiinae (Small dung beetles).

There is an estimated 7,800 unique species that fall under the category of “dung beetle” (Iikka). They vary in size from the smallest dung beetle being only two millimetres long and the largest reaching 70 millimetres (the elephant dung beetle). (Davies). As the name suggests, a majority of dung beetles spend their lives involved in dung in one way or another (Though not all dung beetles work with dung directly). These beetles spend their lives born in dung, consuming it, and even living within it. Some species of these beetles are known for collecting and rolling giant balls of animal feces for long distances to their nests – these bugs can push over 1000x their own bodyweight (SFZoo). These insects are found in every continent in the world outside Antarctica and have a lifespan of up to 3 years (NatGeo).

These animals have based their lives around the existence of other animal’s waste products. The dung beetle does not need to feed on much else besides dung due to the nutrients they are able to extract through the waste. They are very good at what they do and have been observed moving traveling up to 50 miles to find the right pile of dung to eat. In addition to this traveling, once the dung has been collected, the balls may be rolled for upwards of 8 minutes before the beetle buries them and themselves for a private dinner (Smithstonian).

Despite the assumption that all of these beetles’ role dung, it’s actually only around 600 species out of the around 8,000 that make these balls. Other dung beetles simply live within the dung, eat it directly, or just eat plants and fungi.

The ancient Egyptians based much of their culture on different animals – one of those being the Sacred Scarab or Scarabaeus sacer. This scarab beetle is a dung beetle. In Egyptian culture, the Sacred Scarab was the symbol of Khepri, the morning embodiment of their sun God Ra. Khepri would roll the sun across the sky the same way dung beetles roll dung across the desert sands (Remler).

Though we may not worship these insects, their work is still very important. Dung beetles are studied to accelerate the decomposition of dung piles and increase the amount of nutrients found in the soils in which they reside. This nutrient cycling helps keep the soil fertile for the other organisms that live within it (Torabian). There are studies showing an increase in crop yields in areas where the dung beetles frequent. These bugs are known as nature’s custodians and are very good at what they do.

These beetles are often assumed to be exotic to us, but they can actually be found in our own backyards. Just this week, I had the excitement of discovering a dung beetle native to the northern United States and Canada called Ordonteus liebecki (an earth-boring dung beetle). These guys are wide spread and just like many beetles, they vary in size, shape, color, and behavior from species to species.

In conclusion – despite the gross occupation these insects choose to go into, they are fairly interesting and useful for the world around us. All animals have their niches that they fill and the poo-pushing one I suppose belongs to the dung beetle. One last interesting fact I will leave you with is this: The African dung beetle, Scarabaeus satyrus, is one of the few known invertebrates that use the Milky Way for navigation (BBC). What cosmic secrets does he know? Maybe the Egyptians were right and these beetles do have some divinity... (Not really).