Wildlife
Scarab beetles include dung beetles, rose chafers and rhinoceros beetles amongst its family members. Ancient Egyptians revered scarabs crediting their divine incarnation with the act of rolling the sun across the heavens like a giant ball of dung.
Scientific name: Scarabaeidae
Rank: Family
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Dung feast
A ball of dung provides an underground feast.
A ball of dung provides an underground feast.
Dung deal
Nothing remotely edible stays in the forest for long. Fresh dung is no exception.
Nothing remotely edible stays in the forest for long. Fresh dung is no exception.
Diligent dung beetles
Dung beetles clean up after the herds in the Serengeti.
Dung beetles clean up after the herds in the Serengeti.
Rhino beetle
Even in the most desolate landscape, life manages to survive.
In the desolate landscape stripped by recent volcanic activity, there are only a few places which will support life. Inside a rotting, decaying tree is the first find, an enormous rhinocerous beetle grub and an adult.
The Scarab beetles can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Amazon Rainforest, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, Mediterranean, North America, Russia, South America, United Kingdom. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The family Scarabaeidae as currently defined consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide. The species in this large family are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family is fairly unstable, with numerous competing theories, and new proposals appearing quite often. It is probable that many of the subfamilies listed here will no longer be recognized very much longer, as they will likely be reduced in status below subfamily rank, or elevated to family status (the latter is most likely, e.g., with the family "Melolonthidae" already appearing in some recent classifications). Other families have been removed recently, and are nearly universally accepted (e.g., Pleocomidae, Glaresidae, Glaphyridae, Ochodaeidae, Geotrupidae, Bolboceratidae)
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