Thebes Truth About Animals Some dung beetles have taken to decapitating millipedes

The popular image of dung beetles involves them rolling balls of poo across an African landscape. This is true, but it is not the whole truth

Reputation: Dung beetles roll across the African savannah with big balls of, well, dung. The ancient Egyptians were really into them, for some reason.
Reality: From South America to South Africa, the UK to the USA, they will be there. Not only are dung beetles a diverse and multifaceted group of insects, they keep our farmland fertile and our pests and parasites at bay, and even play a part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They do not all eat dung, either.

An unidentified dung beetle (Credit: Jose B. Ruiz/naturepl.com)
The dung beetle was an icon in ancient Egypt, adorning temples, jewellery and texts. It was the symbol of a god who rolled the Sun up over the horizon each day, just like an enormous ball of dung. To this day, this is the stereotypical dung beetle, the one made famous by natural history films – a stocky black insect, trundling along with its smelly ball.
"I get that a lot," says insect ecologist Tomas Roslin at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, "and then hurry to point out that there are as many different species of beetles living in dung as there are, for example, bird species globally".
The sacred scarab of Egypt is a real animal, but it is just the tip of the dung heap. Dung beetles can be big or small, adorned with beautiful colours or horns to fight opponents, and inhabit chilly grasslands or tropical rainforests. Of the thousands of dung beetle species, only a fraction actually roll their dung into balls, and many do not eat dung at all.
"With so many different species that exist globally, the differences in life history are almost endless," says Trond Larsen, a tropical ecologist and Director of Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program. "Among the most fascinating dung beetle species are those which have developed unusual specialisations."

A dung beetle (Scarabeus laticollis) rolling dung (Credit: Pascal Pittorino/naturepl.com)
Most dung beetles work hard to live up to their name. In their quest for dung, some species engage in epic kung fu battles on the savannah. Others take up residence by monkeys' anuses, so they can hop onto the dung as it leaves its owner: a perfect example of "first come, first serve".
But according to Larsen, it is common to find over 150 distinct dung beetle species at a single site in the tropics. With this level of competition for limited quantities of dung, it is hardly surprising that some have evolved non dung-based diets.
These diets would still not be to everyone's taste. Whether it is carrion, rotting fruit and fungi, or dead invertebrates, dung beetles seem happy to serve as nature's bin men, hoovering up unpleasant detritus and waste. One species lives on the backs of giant land snails, sucking up their mucus while enjoying a free ride.
Perhaps the most fascinating specialists are the dung beetles that have made the switch from dung to hunting prey.

Dung beetles must compete for access to dung (Credit: Vincent Munier/naturepl.com)
Predatory dung beetles have long been alluded to in the scientific literature.
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