This was asked in our car, early one morning - and we still dont know - if a dung beetle eats dung - what does it poop? Silly thought but our 12 year old boy thought it was a great question !!
2006-10-05 11:51:23 · 8 answers · asked by fireside_jo 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
And I know that "technically" it's not zoology but there is no entimology (?) section
2006-10-05 11:54:22 · update #1
Much hilarity when i explained about the squeezing of then dung !! Keep up the good work - we are all impressed.
2006-10-05 22:08:11 · update #2
Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Dung beetles eat dung excreted by herbivores and omnivores, and prefer that produced by the former. Many of them also feed on mushrooms and decaying leaves and fruits. They do not need to eat anything else because the dung provides all the necessary nutrients. Nor do they even need to drink water. The larvae feeds on the undigested plant fiber in the dung, while the adults do not eat solid food at all. Instead they use their mouthparts to squeeze and suck the juice from the manure, a liquid full of micro-organisms and other nutrients (as well as the body fluids from some unlucky animals such as dung-feeding maggots that sometimes get trapped between their mandibles).
I guess it means that they would still excrete dung, but it would be stripped of all the nutrients they needed by that time.
2006-10-05 12:07:43 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
In an agricultural device of farm animals production it really is considered huge distinctly in evaluation to organic and organic structures there is not any longer any way that there must be sufficient dung beetles to take care of the excesses in animal manure. The land will be so over run with beetles (suited contained in the previous ever getting remotely on the component of equilibrium) and the consequent imbalance interior the ambience and animal populations will be so extreme that the placed on will be worse than the mission. it really is sufficient that quite a number of the manure is going gratefully again into the land in a sustainable device of soil replenishment. The dung beetle might want to not in any respect attain such huge populations as well no matter if or not that they had each and each of the manure they needed. Natures constructive stability isn't regularly that versatile and any human intervention on the instantaneous will, because it continually has interior the previous, be a catastrophy better tremendous than we've ever considered.
2016-11-26 19:48:44 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dung Beetles utilize the undigested remnants from herbivores such as cows or other grazing animals, they also use dung to enclose their eggs and provide a food source for the juveniles. They excrete dung also, as they digest the cellulose and proteins from the fecal matter. It is interesting as Australia has many grazing animals but nothing like dung beetles, so the government of Australia imported many dung beetles from China and the beetles are doing a great job. One of my friends is an entomologist and he used to keep several species of dung beetles, I am a field biologist and I used to feel strange when my friend would scoop up a pile of dung to take home for his 'pets'. I have been knocked off of a motorcycle by a dung beetle flying into my forehead as I was going home...a good case for helmets!
2006-10-05 14:25:17 · answer #3 · answered by Frank 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The majority of dung beetles feed on dung, both in their adult and larval phase. However, many dung beetles feed on a variety of things, including mushrooms, decomposing leaves and other rotting matter. Adult dung beetles have mouth parts which are specially adapted to feed on liquefied material and can break down a dung pad very efficiently by burying the dung underground to use when breeding
2006-10-06 03:01:45 · answer #4 · answered by NISHA V 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok first off, Dung beetles don't eat poop after their adolesent stage. When a beetle is gonna make babies, it rolls a giant ball of feces and lays the eggs inside. The beetles hatch and eat their way out of the dung. It provides nutrients and saftey during their earlier, more vunerable years of life. And as for the pooping, they poop poop, but it has alot less nutrients and what not in it. When things poop, theres alot of leftovers, and thats what the beetles eat.
2006-10-05 11:58:24 · answer #5 · answered by Ant 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Stands to reason that it would poop what it eat dung poop!
2006-10-05 13:08:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
They don't eat dung.
They do poop it though.
Did you know they are a protected species?
In SA I was in a wildlife park and you must stop to let them cross the road. Sweet!
2006-10-05 12:02:01 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
poop
2006-10-05 11:54:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋