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Are dung beetles decomposers or consumers?
Dung beetles are decomposers.

Usually, what we call ecological balance is cut from this point, that is, the subtle relationship between producers, consumers and decomposers. Producers usually refer to plants, consumers refer to animals, and decomposers mainly refer to microorganisms. They form a food chain and are indispensable to each other, creating a whole ecosystem. For example, producers: trees grow leaves and provide them to consumers: goats eat. Goat decomposed after death: bacteria decompose, then return to the soil and become food for producers again. This cycle has created the operation of nature.

However, there is also a scavenger, which is also a decomposer, that is, the dung beetle in the insect world, which specializes in decomposing animal feces and accelerating the cycle of nutrient resources. Everyone hates feces, but think about it. If dung beetles don't help deal with the feces of animals all over the world, flies with infectious pathogens will be more rampant and human beings will suffer more. From this perspective, the existence of dung beetles is actually very meaningful. Next, let's introduce this group of great and special members.

Dung beetles belong to Coleoptera, Insecta, Scarabaeidae. Most of them are oval, oval or hemispherical. The body color is mostly black or dark brown. Both adults and larvae feed on feces, and the adult's head is flat, like a flat shovel, just for the convenience of digging feces. Although the adult's body is hard, but its mouthparts are fragile, it can't handle hard food, so it usually avoids hard plant fibers in feces and only eats soft or liquid parts.

Dung beetles mainly judge the location of food sources by their sense of smell. Generally, when flying in a straight line, when food is found, it will fly around at a low altitude, but usually it will not land directly on the food, but keep a distance and then approach in a straight line.

Dung beetles can be divided into three categories according to the way of foraging and nesting: one can push dung balls, the other can dig holes directly under dung, and the third can live directly in dung.

Next, let's introduce this interesting dung beetles. They usually cut a small piece of feces with their head shield, and then make this small piece of feces into a round dung ball with their head shield and front feet. If the dung ball is not big enough, he will cut the dung again until the weight is enough. When the dung ball is ready, it will push the dung ball to a suitable place with its developed hind feet (sometimes it will hold the dung ball with its hind feet and crawl only with its front and middle feet) and bury it for itself or larvae to eat. The direction of pushing the dung ball is usually in line with the food source. In order to keep this direction, we usually try to overcome obstacles on the road instead of detouring. There are two explanations for this habit. One is that the dung beetle takes the sun as the theme when walking, and the other is that it can distinguish the polarization structure of the sky.

Adult dung beetles are very responsible parents. They usually prepare food for the next generation and make dung balls. And the material of dung balls is better than ordinary food. Larvae is very afraid of dehydration, and its water source is only dung balls, so round dung balls are the best shape to prevent water from emitting, so dung balls are generally round.

Generally speaking, dung balls are made by males and squeezed by females. Sometimes you can see pictures of men and women pushing dung balls together. Usually, females are bigger than males, so when pushing dung balls together, males usually push with their hind feet and females pull with their front feet. But if the size is opposite, the situation is reversed. When the male and female adults find a suitable nesting place together, they will dig a nest room to bury the baby dung ball, and then the male and female insects will mate. After that, the males will leave first, while the females will lay their eggs on the dung balls, one by one, and will leave in a few days. This is a very responsible parent. The excrement discharged by the larvae will "wipe" itself on the inner wall of the dung ball and be used as the pupa room.

Dung beetles's habit of loving dung is not the embodiment of the magical power of nature. Just imagine, if there were no dung beetles in the world, feces would be everywhere and stink all over the sky, wouldn't it destroy the beauty of the earth? Moreover, dung beetles not only remove feces, but also reduce the chances of bacterial growth. In addition, they also bring rich nutrients to the earth and help plants grow. This scavenger, known as nature, has really made great contributions! Next time you see him, don't dislike him, because he always rolls around in the dunghill. Please give him more applause!

In addition, influenced by the Hollywood movie The Legend of Ghosts and Ghosts in recent years, the creepy scarab in the film is actually a dung beetles. But his horror magic is actually in response to the needs of the plot. In fact, in Egypt, his position is very lofty and deeply respected by Egyptians. This is probably because the way he pushes dung is considered to be related to the operation of the sun! So it's called scarab!