Night-flying dung beetle

The night-flying dung beetle is a dark brown to black beetle with reddish legs. It lives in animal poo, called dung. In the daytime it hides underground, and at night it flies off to find fresh dung.

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Fun facts
It can tell that night has come even when it is buried 4 centimetres down in the soil.
On its night flights it often gets lost and flies to the lights of houses.
Tiny mites ride on its body under its hard wing cases. They eat the mould in the dung, which keeps the beetle's food from going bad.
Its head is shaped like a shovel, and it uses it to dig.
Each of its wing cases has ten long ridges.
Most asked questions about Night-flying dung beetle
?What does the night-flying dung beetle eat?
Dung, which is animal poo. Its larvae grow up in dung too.
?Why does the night-flying dung beetle come to lights?
It flies at night to find food and mates, and it often gets lost and ends up at the lights of houses.
?How big is the night-flying dung beetle?
It is 9 to 13 millimetres long, which is big for its group of dung beetles.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Acrossus rufipes
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Acrossus rufipes (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 gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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.
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