FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Fun Trivia
Home: Questions and Answers Forum
Answers to 100,000 Fascinating Questions
Welcome to FunTrivia's Question & Answer forum!

Search All Questions


Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

Archived Questions

Goto Qn #


Are scarab beetles and dung beetles the same thing?

Question #137762. Asked by Trufflesss.
Last updated Oct 13 2014.
Originally posted Oct 13 2014 8:11 PM.

avatar
Walneto star
Answer has 5 votes
Currently Best Answer
Walneto star
13 year member
831 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Mostly, but not always - some dung beetles aren't scarab beetles according to this:

'Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on dungs or feces. They possess exceptional dung disposal capacity and one dung beetle can bury dung that is 250 times heavier than itself in one night.
Many dung beetles, known as rollers, roll dung into round balls, which are used as a food source or brooding chambers. Other dung beetles, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in manure. They are often attracted by the dung collected by burrowing owls.
All the species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scarabaeinae feed exclusively on feces, that subfamily is often dubbed true dung beetles. There are dung-feeding beetles which belong to other families, such as the Geotrupidae (the earth-boring dung beetle). The Scarabaeinae alone comprises more than 5,000 species.
Dung beetles are currently the only known insect to navigate and orient themselves using the Milky Way.'

copied from: link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dung_beetle

Oct 13 2014, 9:17 PM
free email trivia FREE! Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day!


arrow Your Email Address:

Sign in or Create Free User ID to participate in the discussion
Return to FunTrivia
"Ask FunTrivia" strives to offer the best answers possible to trivia questions. We ask our submitters to thoroughly research questions and provide sources where possible. Feel free to post corrections or additions. This is server B184.