Rolling in Fun: Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dung Beetles You Never Knew!

1. World's Strongest Insects

While Superman can hoist airplanes with ease, his lesser-known rivals in the insect world are hogging the limelight at the gym: dung beetles, especially the bull-headed variety, stand as the world's strongest insects, effortlessly pulling over 1,000 times their own body weight! Also, these tiny Mother Geese dote on their offspring by hiding their brood balls deep within the soil, keeping them cozy and safe from ever-fluctuating temperatures in this crazy climate-changing world.
Source => hellbenderpress.org

2. Dedicated Dung BeetleParents

Move over, helicopter parents; dung beetles have you beat in the childcare department: These dedicated bug mommas stick with their brood balls for up to two months, diligently cleaning their grubby grubs and managing their poop with a level of parental care rarely seen in the insect world.
Source => animals.sandiegozoo.org

Discover the secret behind beetles' shimmering exoskeletons, and find out which other creatures have joined the kaleidoscope club for a dazzling wardrobe! ✨🐞

=> Fun Facts about Beetles

3. Waste Management Heroes

Step aside, waste management trucks, the true dung aficionados are here to roll: Dung beetles can bury more than a metric ton of poo per hectare per year, and in Kruger National Park alone, they manage to tuck away over 2 billion tons of dung annually. These little poop connoisseurs not only keep the environment clean, but also help limit the spread of parasite eggs hiding in the muck.
Source => isambanecamp.com

4. Starry Love Stories

Navigating through romance can be a dung beetle's Star Wars saga, making use of their own cosmic "GPS" to woo potential partners with perfectly aligned poop: Male dung beetles are known to rely on starlight, especially the bright stripe from the Milky Way, in order to guide their dung balls in a straight line to impress females for mating success – a fascinating example of starlight navigation in the insect world, which could also be observed in other nocturnal species like bees and moths.
Source => science.org

5. Superman of the Insect World

Move over, Superman, there's a new hero in town – and they're a little... poopular: Dung beetles are not only the world's strongest insect, but they battle to save our ecosystem by heroically disposing of animal waste, pulling a heroic 1,000 times their body weight in dung balls and keeping harmful bacteria at bay.
Source => trulynolen.ca

6. Carnivorous Dung Beetles

While "rolling in the deep" might be Adele's method of choice for overcoming heartache, it's an entirely different ball game for some dung beetles: Surprisingly, not all species dine on dung as their main course, as the carnivorous Queensland dung beetle actually feasts upon other insects.
Source => letstalkscience.ca

7. Moonwalking PoopRollers

Rollin' with the homies, dung beetle style: these nature's MVPs use their front legs to generate force and roll their dung balls backward, while their middle and hind legs do the moonwalk on the ball. Taking the term "abs of steel" to a whole new level, these clever critters can carry dung balls up to ten times their own weight, setting the bar high for bio-inspired robots to mimic their impressive ball-rollin' ways.
Source => hfsp.org

8. The Three Dung Beetle Types

In the diverse world of dung beetles, you could say there are ballers, architects, and squatters: dung beetles are classified into rollers, tunnelers, and dwellers, based on how they utilize the poop they find – rollers fashion and roll dung balls, tunnelers burrow beneath the pile, and dwellers make themselves at home in the stinky mound.
Source => kids.nationalgeographic.com

9. Ancient Egyptian Symbols

Move over, Mr. Mom: the dung beetle is the real multi-tasker of the insect world! With their poop-rolling ways, they make tasty snacks and baby Beetle BnBs in one go: In fact, these resourceful critters create food and nurseries out of fecal matter by rolling it into a ball, which led to their veneration in ancient Egyptian religion as a symbol of the sun god Ra and the notion of rebirth and regeneration – the scat stars even made cameos in hieroglyphics at the King Tut exhibit in TheNAT museum.
Source => kpbs.org

10. Herculean Insect Lifters

The swole athlete of the insect world, dung beetles make even weightlifters green with envy — or is that the stench of the gym?: The Herculean bull-headed dung beetle can pull an astonishing 1,000 times its own body weight, paving the way for its claim to fame as a master of manure manipulation.
Source => arstechnica.com