What's on the menu for dinner tonight? For you and me it might be pizza or spaghetti. In the animal kingdom, things are a little different. In this case, we're talking about a member of the Scarabaedae (Scarab) family known as the dung beetle.
 
     You may recognize these beetles from ancient Egyptian art. Dung beetles can have many different sizes, colors, and appearances. The thing they all have in common is their diet, which consists of the solid waste of other animals. Dung beetles can be rollers, tunnelers, or dwellers. Rollers fly to a pile of maure, form some of it into a ball, and then it rolls it away quickly before another beetle can take it.

     Tunnelers build a tunel under the pile of manure. They carry their treasure down into the tunnel, where they eat part of it, making sure to leave plenty for their offspring. Then they lay their eggs in it and cover them up for safekeeping. When the eggs hatch, they don't have to go very far to find dinner.
    
     Dwellers do exactly what their name suggests; they live right in dung piles as much as is possible.
    

     You may ask,"Why would God create such a weird bug?" Dung beetles serve a very important purpose in the ecosystem. They're nature's septic system, doing away with tons of manure everyday all over the world and putting much-needed nutrients back into the soil. Without them, we'd be in a heap of trouble!