My thanks to Troy for this contribution.
Did you know there are 3 kinds of dung beetles? Rollers, tunnellers and dwellers (Doug is a rock ‘n’ roller).
A roller sculpts a chunk of dung into a ball and rolls his prize away from its initial source. It’s then used for food later on, or the female lays her eggs in it (so the babies won’t starve on birth). A tunneller will fly to find it’s prey, then dive into it and undergo a sub terrain excavation to bury as much of the prize as possible, within an underground tunnel. And my favourite – the dweller, who takes up residence in the dung pile (well, its the eggs that do this. the adult lays their eggs in the dung so that when they hatch they have ample food to get them started). Who could ask for a better home?
Wow, what a cute way to educate and entertain! Cute!
Why thank you Morguie. I must admit, I have a soft spot for Doug. Your blog says you live in the desert – do you have any dung beetles there?
Feel free to download his eBook from NoiseTrade, or tell a friend who might appreciate a dung beetle story. It’s absolutely free right now as part of a promotion I’m running.
http://books.noisetrade.com/martina/doug-the-dung-beetle-the-long
We have pinocote (sp?) beetles which resemble them but are known to many as stink bugs…they tip their hind ends up when approached and allegedly excrete a stinky “gas” for lack of a better word. I’ve never noticed the odor so I wonder if it’s even true..
Thanks for the link to the book. I shall check it out. 🙂
That would be great. I’m no bug expert, but I believe stink bugs are different to dung beetles – I guess you could say the only thing that stinks with dung beetles is their dung