| Scarab beetles | |||||||||||
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The scarab is a type of beetle noted for rolling dung into spherical balls and pushing it, as well as its habit of laying its eggs in animal dung. The scarab was considered sacred to the Ancient Egyptians because it "mirrored the way the great god Ra rolled the sun across the sky each day" by rolling dung balls around. Because most of the scarab species work with dung they are commonly referred to as dung beetles.
Dung beetles live in many different habitats including: desert, farmland, forest, and grasslands. They do not like extremely cold or dry weather. They occur on all continents except Antarctica.
The majority of the dung beetle diet is dung. They will eat dung from a variety of animals as long as the animal is herbivorous. Dung beetles also feed on mushrooms, leaves, and decaying matter. Dung beetles do not need to eat anything else because the dung provides all the nutrients; they don't even need to drink water.
The dung beetle body consists of head, abdomen, and thorax. They have legs, located on the thorax, that are specialized for shoveling dung and rolling it along.
The dung beetle has complete metamorphosis. The female will lay an egg in a dung ball which will then be buried to protect it from erosion and predators. During the larval stage the dung beetle will feed on the dung surrounding it.
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