Is the "natural scavenger" dung beetle a beneficial insect or a pest?

Dung beetle, also known as dung golden turtle, scientific name dung beetle, has a certain phototaxis, can roll feces into a ball, push forward. It mainly feeds on animal droppings and is known as the "natural scavenger". So is dung beetle a beneficial insect or a pest? According to agricultural scholar Li Changfei, dung beetles use shovel-shaped heads and paddle-shaped tentacles to roll feces into a ball, sometimes as big as apples. In early summer, dung beetles bury themselves and dung balls in underground chambers and feed on them. Later, the female lays eggs in the dung ball, and the hatched larvae also feed on it. The insect body is generally round, the sheath wing is short, and the end of the abdomen is exposed.

The male has a long, curved horn on top of his head. You can eat more food than you weigh within 24 hours. It is beneficial to human beings because it can accelerate the process of converting feces into substances that can be used by other organisms. In addition, dung beetles can clean up animal faeces, inhibit other faeces-eating pests, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In Australia, the original dung beetle species only prefer to eat small droppings such as kangaroo droppings, rather than exotic cattle and sheep droppings. From 1965 to 1985, the Australian Federal Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, under the leadership of a doctor, launched the Australian dung beetle program, which successfully introduced 23 species of dung beetles from around the world. as a result, the problem of dung accumulation in Australian pastures has been improved and harmful jungle flies have been reduced by about 90%.

Attached: the law of reproduction and feeding of dung beetle

I. the law of reproduction

Female dung beetles during the breeding period turn their dung balls into pear-shaped balls and lay eggs in them. The hatched larvae feed on ready-made dung balls and do not break out of the ground until they develop into adults. Herbivorous dung beetles feed on sweet tree sap. After male and female mating, the female lays eggs in rotten leaf soil. After about 10 days, the larvae break the eggs and feed on rotten leaf soil or animal feces. The larvae continue to grow, and the following July turns into pupae. About 20 days later, it becomes an adult. Dung beetles belong to Insecta, Coleoptera, black or dark brown, with hard exoskeleton, developed compound eyes, chewable mouthparts, Gill-shaped antennae, 3 pairs of feet, 2 pairs of wings, keratinized forewings and completely abnormal development.

Second, the eating rule

On the African prairie, thousands of dung beetles emerge from the ground on the fourth night after the rainy season.

After the heavy rain, the elephants greedily enjoyed the new plants, but the digestive system could not bear the sudden increase in load, and a lot of the food swallowed was returned to the ground. The giant beetle is the largest of the dung beetles, and its food source mainly depends on the feces of elephants.

Every day, elephants leave hundreds of tons of elephant dung on the plain, followed by an army of dung beetles. Part of the elephant dung is buried in the ground, and the dung beetle's work makes the land fat and alive. This is a cyclic process in which the giant roach plays an important role.

Annex 2: how to deal with shit in ancient times

In ancient times, there was no flushing toilet, and the most basic way for people to meet the physiological needs of excretion was to dig a hole in the ground and bury it after it was done. In agricultural society, manure can be used as fertilizer, so in cities, there are special people to collect feces in wooden buckets every night (commonly known as "nocturnal incense"). However, in an industrial society, chemical fertilizers and hygiene problems of human faeces have greatly reduced people's impression of faeces. However, in the past 40 years, with the rise of the environmental protection movement, the organic food produced by the fermentation of livestock manure and other organic food has been welcomed by the society. In ancient times, people called stool "courtesy".