dung beetle

English

WOTD – 15 June 2016

A dung beetle rolling a ball of dung with its hind legs

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʌŋ biːtəl/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dung bee‧tle

Noun

dung beetle (plural dung beetles)

1. Any of the beetle of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles), especially of the subfamilies and , noted for rolling dung into balls for use as food or as brooding chambers.
   • 1990, Marina Tyndale-Biscoe, Common Dung Beetles in Pastures of South-eastern Australia, [Collingwood, Vic.?]: Division of Entomology, CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, page 2:

     What do dung beetles do? Adults and larvae of dung beetles feed only on dung and therefore are not a threat to the environment. This is in contrast to some other beetles found in dung pads, (not dung beetles) which feed on vegetable and other matter besides dung, while others are carnivorous. The activity of adult dung beetles can break up the dung pad, and most species bury the dung in the ground for feeding and breeding.

   • 2005, Marty [Martha L.] Crump, Headless Males Make Great Lovers: And Other Unusual Natural Histories, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 73:

     And then there are dung beetles, feces-eaters extraordinaire. The sacred dung scarab of Egypt symbolized resurrection and immortality, explaining why the ancient Egyptians often placed these beetles in tombs with the dead and why they painted dung beetle figures on their sarcophagi.

   • 2010, Aaron Reynolds, The Dung Beetle Bandits, London: Raintree Publishers, →ISBN:

     Some dung beetles, called rollers, use their back legs to roll dung into a smooth, tiny ball. […] The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun was rolled across the sky by a giant dung beetle named Khepri.
2. Any of the true dung beetles of subfamily

See also

• dor
• scarab

Translations

insect of the family Scarabaeidae

• Afrikaans: miskruier
• Albanian: bubuzhel (sq) m
• Arabic: جَعْل الرَوْث m (jaʕl ar-rawṯ), جِعْرَان m (jiʕrān), خُنْفُسَاء f (ḵunfusāʾ)
• Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܚܪܦܘܫܬܐ f

• Armenian:

  Old Armenian: բզէզ (bzēz)

• Assamese: গুবৰুৱা (guborua)
• Breton: bleiz-bouzel m
• Catalan: escarabat piloter m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 蜣螂 (goeng¹ long⁴), 屎殼郎／屎壳郎 (si² hok³ long⁴)

  Mandarin: 蜣螂 (zh) (qiāngláng), 屎殼郎／屎壳郎 (zh), 屎壳郎 (zh) (shǐkélàng), 屎蚵螂 (zh) (shǐkēláng), 糞金龜／粪金龟 (zh) (fènjīnguī), 粪金龟 (zh) (fènjīnguī)

  Min Dong: 牛屎龜／牛屎龟 (ngù-sāi-gŭi)

  Min Nan: 蜣螂 (khiong-lông), (Quanzhou Hokkien) 屎龜／屎龟 (sái-ku), 牛屎龜／牛屎龟 (zh-min-nan) (gû-sái-ku), (Teochew) 牛屎核 (ghu5 sai2 hug8)

• Czech: hovnivál m, chrobák (cs) m
• Danish: gødningsbille c, møgbille c
• Dutch: mestkever (nl) m, strontkever m
• Esperanto: sterkoskarabo, fekskarabo
• Estonian: sitikas
• Finnish: sittiäinen (fi), sittisontiainen (fi)
• French: bousier (fr) m, scarabée bousier m, escarbot (fr) m
• Galician: bosteiro (gl) m
• German: Mistkäfer (de) m

  Alemannic German: (Uri) Mistguege f

• Greek: σκαραβαίος (el) m (skaravaíos)

  Ancient: κάνθαρος m (kántharos), βύλαρος m (búlaros) (Koine)

• Hebrew: חִפּוּשִׁית זֶבֶל f (khipushít zével)
• Hindi: गोबरैला (hi) m (gobrailā), गुबरैला (hi) m (gubrailā)
• Icelandic: tordýfill m
• Ido: sterko-skarabeo (io)
• Irish: priompallán m
• Italian: scarabeo stercorario m, geotrupe m, stercorario (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 糞虫 (ふんちゅう, funchū, くそむし, kusomushi), 糞転がし (ふんころがし, funkorogashi), フンコロガシ (funkorogashi)
• Javanese: kutis
• K'iche': tuktul achaq’
• Kavalan: baReng
• Kazakh: қиқоңыз (qiqoñyz)
• Khmer: កំពូលអាចម៍ (km) (kɑmpuul ac)
• Kikuyu: nding'oing'o class 9/10
• Korean: 말똥구리 (malttongguri), 쇠똥구리 (soettongguri), 소똥구리 (sottongguri)
• Latvian: mēslvabole f
• Lithuanian: mėšlavabalis m
• Navajo: chąąneiłmaasii
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gjødselbille m

  Nynorsk: gjødselbille f

• Old English: sċearnwifel m
• Pipil: kwitaululujtzin
• Portuguese: escaravelho (pt) m, rola-bosta m
• Quechua: aka suntu
• Romanian: scarabeu (ro) m
• Russian: наво́зный жук m (navóznyj žuk), наво́зник (ru) m (navóznik)
• Scottish Gaelic: ceàrd-dubhan m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: говноваљ m, балегар m, балегара f

  Roman: govnovalj m, balegar (sh) m, balegara f

• Slovak: lajniak m
• Slovene: govnač (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: gnojowy bruk m

  Upper Sorbian: hnojowy bruk m

• Spanish: escarabajo pelotero m, ruedamierda m
• Swedish: bladhorning c, dyngbagge c, tordyvel c
• Tamil: சாணி வண்டு (cāṇi vaṇṭu)
• Telugu: పేడపురుగు (te) (pēḍapurugu)
• Turkish: bok böceği (tr)
• Ukrainian: гнойови́к m (hnojovýk)
• Vietnamese: bọ hung (vi)
• Xhosa: uqongqothwane class 1a/2a, inkubabulongwe class 9/10
• Zhuang: mbongjmbwt
• Zulu: inkuba (zu) class 9/10

Further reading

• dung beetle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia