Is a dung beatle the same thing as a scarab beatle?

Question

This has been a huge debate between my fiancee and his friend. i say no his friend says yes.

Answer 1

It all depends on what you define as the same thing. But I hope you did not have a bet on the answer.

Dung Beetles are the common name of many species of Scarab Beetles which belong to the order Scarabaeidae which also include chafers.

Dung beetles typically feed on the decaying matter found in dung, either burrowing into it or rolling it into a ball and burying it. They play an important environmental role in disposing of dung, and are harmless.

So the answer is they are the same thing, unless you are looking at comparing a species in Eygpt (associated with Mummies) with the dung beetles that are found in the UK with cow pats.

Answer 2

Scarab beetles often refers to a large beetles family "Scarabaeidae" which consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide. Dung beetles fall under this family.Dung beetles refer to those beetles which feed partly or exclusively on feces. Most of these species belong to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae. In short we can say that a dung beetle is a scarab but a scarab is not necessarily a dung beetle but could include many of its species.