Ancient Egyptians revered the scarab (dung beetle). They credited it with keeping the earth revolving like a giant ball of dung. Much earlier than the Egyptians, 10, 000 to 20, 000 years ago, dung beetles were revered by Shamanic cultures, often as The Creator.

Life span
Up to three years.

Statistics
K. aegyptiorum is 3cm long. Dung beetles range from less than 1mm to a giant 6cm.

Physical description
Typical dung beetle appearance is a beetle with a grooved shield and large strong front limbs for digging and fighting, and elongated back legs for holding a dung ball while rolling. Long flying wings are folded under hard wing coverts. They have club antennae with fingerlike projections. K. aegyptiorum species is usually metallic iridescent pink, though sometimes metallic green or black. Other species may have horns or projections and are a variety of colours.

Distribution
Dung beetles occur on every continent except Antarctica.

Habitat
They inhabit a variety of habitats, including desert, farmland, forest and grassland.

Diet
They feed on dung from many different herbivorous animals.

Behaviour
There are three main types of dung beetles: the rollers, the tunnellers and the dwellers that live in the dung. K. aegyptiorum is a roller - a strategy recognised as being evolutionarily the most advanced. They generally follow mammals by flying upwind towards the scent of dung. Their sense of smell is acute and their eyes are divided in half for ground vision and polarised light vision. Dung beetles are usually solitary apart from the short time they spend with their partners prior to mating.

Reproduction
The rollers establish a pair bond. They usually meet in the dung pat. The male offers the female a giant-sized brood ball which if accepted, they roll away together, or with the female riding on the ball. During this time, other beetles often attempt to steel the ball. They find a soft place and bury the ball before mating - mostly underground. The male then leaves to find further partners. The female of this species makes a brood 'pear' or 'pears' and lays a single egg in each. She then coats the pear with an antiseptic mixture of dung, saliva and faeces to seal it in a case which hardens solid. Unusual in insects, this species exhibits the highest level of parental care seen in an insect. She stays with the ball and her grub for two months, cleaning it and removing its faeces, fungi and bacteria.

Notes
Up to 16,000 dung beetles have been counted in one 1.5kg heap of elephant dung. One dung beetle can bury 250 times its own weight in a night.

Best place to see
In Africa: Along the route of the wildebeest migration, especially the Triangle area of the Serengeti in Tanzania.