What is a dung beetle?
A dung beetle is exactly what it sounds like: A type of insect that lives in and eats the poop of other animals!
This lifestyle might not sound very appealing to you, but there are thousands of types of dung beetles all over the world, and they'd probably beg to differ!
Scientists classify dung beetles into a group called "Scarabaeoidea." (Try saying that three times fast!) Although it sounds gross, dung beetles are very helpful at breaking down wastes! Some dung beetles simply live inside the animal wastes, while others spend time tunneling into them.
Certain dung beetles even roll the wastes into balls before using them as anything from food, to home, to a place to lay their eggs! Those who feed on dung eat the parts of the waste that were not fully digested by the animal it came from. Remember that dung beetles are very good at making extra use of poop, so you should always leave this dirty work to them since they're the experts. It's even in their name!
By Alli Rodenhauser (Whyzz writer)
Exploration
Yucky but helpful!
Aside from dung beetles, can you think of any other creature that is kind of yucky, but also kind of helpful? One great example is worms! By squirming and tunneling under the ground, worms help rainwater and air to reach the roots of plants in the ground. Can you think of any other examples??
