Flightless dung beetle
The flightless dung beetle is a dung beetle from South Africa that cannot fly, so it walks everywhere. It lives where elephants and buffaloes live, because their dung is its food. It is the only beetle in its group in the whole world.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Because it does not fly, it uses the space under its wing cases as a little air store that helps it save water in dry places.
It breathes in a special way that loses very little water, which helps it live where it is dry.
It used to live all over southern Africa, but now it is found in only a few places.
It is a vulnerable species, so people protect it.
Most asked questions about Flightless dung beetle
?Why can't the flightless dung beetle fly?
It lost the ability to fly, and the space under its wing cases now helps it save water in its dry home.
?What does the flightless dung beetle eat?
Mostly elephant and buffalo dung, and sometimes dung from other animals.
?Is the flightless dung beetle endangered?
It is vulnerable, because it lives in only a few places and depends on elephants and buffaloes.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Circellium bacchus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- Africa
Where the facts come from
- Flightless dung beetle (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by No machine-readable author provided. Moongateclimber assumed (based on copyright claims).. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Stag beetle
Hercules beetle
Common glow-worm
Goliath beetle
Cockchafer
Mealworm beetle
Cactus moth
Northern scorpion
Yellow fat-tailed scorpion
Desertas wolf spider
California carpenter bee
Giant mesquite bug