A feces-eating beetle will be the insect of the year for 2024. Experts at the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute in Müncheberg, Brandenburg, chose the bull beetle from a number of suggestions, the institute announced. The animal, which belongs to the dung beetle family, plays a key role in ecosystems, but populations are declining alarmingly, according to the institute.
The bull beetle (Typhaeus typhoeus) is between 14 and 20 millimeters in size. The name comes from three horns, the outer two of which point forward like a bull. They are used in fights with rivals and to protect nesting sites. The beetle is a powerhouse, explained Thomas Schmitt, director of the Senckenberg Institute and chairman of the board of trustees. He could pull more than a thousand times his body weight.
“The beetles use this strength to push feces from rabbits, deer, cattle, sheep or horses into the narrow passages of their breeding chambers in the form of a ball as food for their offspring,” says Schmitt. To do this, bull beetles dig a shaft up to 1.50 meters deep into the ground after mating. In the chambers, the feces are formed into a pill, next to which the female lays the egg. The bull beetle larva hatches from the egg and crawls to this brood pill and feeds there.
Severe decline in populations worldwide
Dung beetles ensure that droppings quickly disappear from the surface of the soil, explains Werner Schulze, who was involved in the selection for Nabu. “The beetles also regulate the development of parasitic worms and flies in mammalian feces, promote the transport of plant seeds and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially from cow dung.”
Since the mid-1980s, entomologists have recorded a sharp decline in populations worldwide. The reason: grazing animals are increasingly receiving anti-worm medication as a preventive measure. The active ingredients are excreted by the animals and reach the beetles in the feces, which feed on them. “As a result, coprophagous (red: feces-eating) beetles die or only reproduce to a limited extent,” says Schulze.
The decline in dung and dung beetles is considered by scientists to be a significant part of the dramatic global loss of insect fauna. In order to counteract this, the use of antiparasitics in pets and farm animals must be reduced, according to Chairman of the Board of Trustees Schmitt. If possible, farm animals should also be kept on pastures rather than in stables.
