Dimple beetle is a beetle that feeds partially or exclusively on dirt (dirt). A dirty beetle can bury the dirt 250 times heavier than himself in one night.
Many dung beetles, known as rollers, throw dirt into round balls, which are used as food sources or breeding chambers. Others, known as tuners , bury dirt wherever they find it. The third group, the inhabitants , do not roll or dig: they only live in manure. They are often attracted by the excrement collected by the digging owls. There are species of dung beetles of various colors and sizes, and some functional features such as body mass (or biomass) and leg length can have high levels of variability.
All species include Scarabaeoidea superfamily; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae from the Scarabaeidae family (scarab beetle). Since most Scarabaeinae species eat only dirt, the subfamily is often nicknamed the true dung beetle . There are beetles feeding dirt belonging to other families, such as Geotrupidae (dull earth dung beetle) . The Scarabaeinae itself comprises more than 5,000 species.
African nocturnal dung beetle Scarabaeus satyrus is the only non-human animal known to navigate and adapt to using the Milky Way.
Video Dung beetle
Taxonomy
Dung beetles are not a single taxonomic group; fecal feed is found in a number of beetle families, so the behavior can not be assumed to have evolved only once.
- Coleoptera (order), beetle
- Scarabaeoidea (superfamily), scarab (most families in the group do not use impurities)
- Geotrupidae (family), "dull earth dung beetle"
- Scarabaeidae (family), "scarab beetle" (not all species use dirt)
- Scarabaeinae (subfamily), "true dung beetle"
- Aphodiinae (subfamily), "small dung beetle" (not all species use impurities)
- Scarabaeoidea (superfamily), scarab (most families in the group do not use impurities)
Maps Dung beetle
Ecology and behavior
Dung beetles live in many habitats, including deserts, grasslands and savannahs, farmland, and native forests and plants. They are strongly influenced by the environmental context, and do not like very cold or dry weather. They are found on all continents except Antarctica. They eat herbivorous and omnivorous impurities, and prefer to be produced by the latter. Many of them also eat mold and rotting leaves and fruits. One species living in Central America, Deltochilum valgum , is a carnivore that preys on millipedes. Those who eat dirt do not need to eat or drink anything, because the feces provide all the necessary nutrients.
Most dirt beetles seek dirt using their sensitive sense of smell. Some smaller species just attach themselves to the dirt providers to wait for the dirt. After catching the dirt, the dirt beetle rolls it up, following a straight line despite all the obstacles. Sometimes, the dung beetles try to steal the dirt balls from other beetles, so dung beetles must move quickly away from the pile of dirt as they roll their balls to prevent them from being stolen. Dung beetles can roll up to 10 times their weight. Male Onthophagus taurus beetle can pull 1,141 times their own weight: the equivalent of an average person who pulls six two-person buses full of people.
Species of dung beetle (Africa Scarabaeus zambesianus ) navigate with polarization patterns under the moonlight, the first known animal to do so. Dung beetles can also navigate when only the Milky Way or a collection of bright stars are visible, making them the only known insects to conform to the galaxy.
Roll "rollers" and bury the dirt balls either for food storage or to make the ball muses. In the latter case, two beetles, one male and one female, live around the dirt ball during the milling process. Usually it is the man who rolls the ball, while the women ride the horse or just follow behind. In some cases, men and women roll over together. When a place with soft soil is found, they stop and bury the ball, then mate underground. After marriage, one or both prepare the ball brood. When the ball is over, the female lays inside, a form of mass provision.
Some species do not go after this stage, but still keep their offspring. Dung beetles run through complete metamorphosis. The larvae live in a brooding ball made with dirt prepared by their parents. During the larval stage, the beetle eats the dirt around it.
The beetle's behavior was poorly understood until Jean Henri Fabre's study at the end of the 19th century. For example, Fabre corrects the myth that dirt beetles will seek help from other dung beetles when confronted with obstacles. With observations and experiments, he found that visibly-looking helpers were waiting for an opportunity to steal food sources.
They are widely used in ecological research as a good bioindicator group to examine the impact of human activities on tropical biodiversity and ecosystem functions, such as seed dispersal, soil bioturbation and nutrient cycles.
Benefits and uses
Dung beetles play a tremendous role in agriculture and tropical forests. By burying and eating dirt, they improve the recycling of nutrients and soil structure. They are also important for the distribution of seeds present in animal waste, affecting the burial of seeds and the recruitment of seeds in tropical forests. They can protect livestock, such as livestock, by removing impurities which, if left unchecked, can provide habitat for pests such as flies. Therefore, many countries have introduced creatures for the benefit of livestock. In developing countries, beetles are essential in addition to improving hygiene standards. The American Institute of Biological Sciences reports that the dirt beetle saves the US livestock industry about US $ 380 million annually through burying livestock manure on the ground.
In Australia, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) commissioned the Australian Dung Beetle Project (1965-1985) headed by George Bornemissza, attempting to introduce dung beetle species from South Africa and Europe. A successful introduction of 23 species was made, notably the Digitonthophagus gazella and Euoniticellus intermedius, which has resulted in improved quality and fertility of Australian livestock pasture, along with a reduction in the bush population of flies around 90 percent.
An application has been made by Landcare Research to import up to 11 species of dung beetle to New Zealand. In addition to improving grassland land, the Dung Kumbang Release Strategy Group says that it will result in reduced emissions of nitrous oxide (greenhouse gas) from agriculture. There is however strong opposition from some people at Auckland University, and some others, based on the risk of dung beetles acting as vectors of the disease. There are public health researchers at the University of Auckland who agree with the current EPA risk assessment and there are indeed some Landcare programs in Australia involving school children who collect dung beetles.
The African dung beetle, D. gazella , was introduced in several locations in North and South America and has spread its distribution to other areas by natural transport of spreading and accidents, and is now perhaps naturalized in most countries between MÃÆ'Â © xico and Argentina. Exotic species may be useful for controlling livestock disease in commercial areas, and may replace indigenous species in modified landscapes, but data are not conclusive about their influence on native species in the natural environment and further monitoring is required.
Like many other insects, the dung beetle (dried), called qianglang (??) in Chinese, is used in Chinese herbal medicine. It is recorded in the "Insect" (??) section of Compendium of Materia Medica , where it is recommended to cure 10 diseases.
In Isan, Northeast Thailand, locals famous for eating many types of insects include dung beetles. Is there a song Isan ?????????????? "Where Dung Beetle goes", which relates to buffalo replacement with a "metal" buffalo, which does not provide the dirt needed for dung beetles. Therefore, the more rarely kerangan kerangkeng in agricultural areas.
Scarab in ancient Egypt
Some species of dung beetle, especially the Scarabaeus sacer species (often referred to as the sacred scarab), enjoy a sacred status among the ancient Egyptians.
Egyptian hieroglyphic writing uses beetle images to represent triliteral phonetics which Egyptologists transliterated as xpr or ? Pr and translated as "manifest", "be" or "change". Derivative term xprw or ? Pr (w) is variously translated as "form", "transformation", "occur", "mode becomes" or "what has come to be", depending on the context. It may have existential, fictitious, or ontological meaning. The beetle is related to Khepri ("he who has become"), the rising sun god. The ancients believed that the dung beetle was only male, and reproduced by depositing the cement into the dirt balls. Creation of a beetle that should resemble Khepri's, who created himself out of nothing. In addition, the dirt balls that are rolled by the dung beetle resemble the sun. Plutarch writes:
The beetle races do not have females, but all the men take their sperm into a round pellet of the material they roll by pushing it from the opposite side, just as the sun seems to turn the sky in the opposite direction. , which is from west to east.
The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it over the horizon, then took it to another world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day. Some royal tombs of the New Kingdom showcased three images of the sun god, with beetles as the symbol of the morning sun. The astronomical ceiling in the tomb of Ramesses VI depicts the nightly "death" and "rebirth" of the sun swallowed by Nut, the sky goddess, and reappears from his womb as Khepri.
The description of the scarab, which conveys the idea of ​​transformation, renewal, and resurrection, is ubiquitous in the religious art and burial of ancient Egypt.
Excavations of ancient Egyptian sites have produced images of scarab in bones, ivory, stones, Egyptian fayans, and precious metals, originating from the Sixth Dynasty and up to the period of Roman rule. They are generally small, bored to let stringing necklaces, and the base contains short inscriptions or cartouche. Some have been used as seals. Pharaoh sometimes commissioned the creation of larger images with long inscriptions, such as the warning scar from Queen Tiye. Large scarabs sculptures can be seen in Luxor Temple, in Serapeum in Alexandria (see Serapis) and elsewhere in Egypt.
The beetle is very important in the ancient Egyptian cemetery cemetery. Scarab, generally, though not always, cut from green stones, and placed on the deceased's chest. Perhaps the most notable example of such "heart scarabs" is the yellow-green scarabum found among Tutankhamen's buried provisions. It's carved out of a huge piece of Libyan desert glass. The purpose of "heart scarab" is to ensure that the heart will not testify against the deceased in court in the afterlife. Another possibility suggested by the "transformation mantra" of Coffin Texts, which asserts that the soul of the deceased can transform ( xpr ) into a human, a god, or a bird and reappear in the world of people life.
A cleric commented on other features of the beetle related to the theme of death and rebirth:
It may not escape the attention that the pupa, whose wings and legs are wrapped at this stage of development, is very much like a mummy. It has even been shown that egg-made dirt balls are made in the crypt of a vertical axis and a horizontal part that strangely reminiscent of the mastaba tomb of the Ancient Kingdom. "
In contrast to the funeral context, some ancient Egyptian neighbors adopted scarab motifs to seal various types. The most famous of these are the Judean LMLK seals (8 of 21 designs containing scarab beetles), which were used exclusively to impress on storage jars during the reign of Hezekiah.
The beetle remains an item of great interest, thanks to its modern charms with the art and beliefs of ancient Egypt. Scarab beads in semiprecious stones or glazed ceramics can be purchased at most bead stores, while in Luxor Temple a large ancient scarab has been restricted to prevent visitors rubbing the base of the "for luck" statue.
In culture
In the literature
In Aesop's tale "The Eagle and the Beetle", the eagle kills a rabbit who has sought protection with a beetle. The beetle then takes revenge by destroying the eagle twice. The eagle, in desperation, flies to Olympus and places his newest eggs on Zeus's lap, begging the gods to protect them. When the beetle knows what the hawk has done, it stuffs itself with dirt, goes straight to Zeus and flies right into his face. Zeus was surprised to see the unhappy creature, jumping to his feet and breaking the egg. Learning from the origins of their hostility, Zeus attempted to mediate and, when his attempts to mediate failed, he changed the season of the eagle to the time when the beetle was not on the ground.
Aristophanes alludes to Aesop's tale several times in his drama. In Peace , the hero goes to Olympus to free the Peace goddess from his prison. The horses are a large dung beetle that has been given so much dirt that it grows into a terrible size.
"The Dung Beetle" by Hans Christian Andersen tells of a dung beetle living in a king's stables in an imaginary kingdom. When he demanded the golden shoes worn by the king's horses and was rejected, he flew and had a series of adventures, often triggered by his sense of superiority towards other animals. He eventually returns to the cage after deciding (against all logic) that for him is that the king's horse wore golden shoes.
In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis , the changed character of Gregor Samsa is called "old dung beetle" ( alter MistkÃÆ'¤fer ) by charwoman.
See also
- Catharsius , an important dung beetle genus in Africa and Asia
- Addo Elephant National Park, where the largest remaining population of non-flying dung beetles ( Circellium bacchus ).
- List of species of dung beetles and chafer (Scarabaeoidea) recorded in England
- Rotate movers in the system of life
References
Book sources
External links
- Features: 'What to do with too much shit' - The story behind the introduction of dung beetles in Australia at cosmosmagazine.com
- Beetle as a religious symbol on insects.org
- The Scarabaeinae Research Network
- Dung beetle at the Australian Museum
- Catharsius, an international group working on the taxonomy and ecology of West African dung beetles
- Tomas Libich, Congo dung beetle sp1 and Congo dung beetle sp2 photos
- Dung Beetles in action (video) by The WILD Foundation/Boyd Norton
- Dung Beetle in New Zealand (suggestion of dung beetle release, with background research)
- Marcus Byrne Dance about Ted's dung beetle about the behavior of a dung beetle.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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