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Dung Beetle small on Blackwood base
4cm Average
101-708 ...... 126 USD
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The dung-beetle, or scarab belongs to the Coleoptera family. Scarab beetles were sacred in ancient Egypt. Their food is the dung of herbivores.
Dung beetles (Pachylomera femoralis) are industrious creatures. In African idiom, they signify the hard worker. When an elephant, for example, drops a load of dung, the beetles pick up the scent and fly in from all directions. An entire dropping weighing several kilograms can be flattened and buried in a single afternoon.
The male dung beetle carves out a large lump of dung, rolls and pats it into a round ball and, followed by his mate, rolls it away for a distance, sometimes fighting off opportunistic challengers. They then dig an underground chamber into which they place the ball. The couple then mate, and eat their ‘wedding feast’, safely underground.
After the honeymoon, either the male or female fetches another ball of dung, which is brought to the chamber. This time, only the female stays underground, where she pats down and smoothes the dung ball, then makes a hollow and lays one egg inside it. She then leaves, closing the entrance behind her.
When the larva hatches, it eats the store of food left for it, and changes into a pupa, still safely underground. Eventually the young beetle emerges from its nursery and starts the whole cycle again.
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