Bug card No. 3774 of 4,939

Scooped scarab

Onthophagus hecate

Eats: Leftovers and dead things BeetlesGardens and meadows6 legs

The scooped scarab is a small dung beetle. Dung beetles are nature's cleaners: they find animal droppings and use them as food for themselves and their young. It is a cousin of the famous sacred scarab of Egypt.

Lives in

North America, in fields and pastures

Top speed

about 0.5 km/h (0.31 mph)

On foot, estimate

Can it hurt you?

Harmless

Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.

What does it eat?

It eats animal dung, and its larvae grow up eating dung too.

Photo of Scooped scarab — Picture by Kaldari. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)

A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)

Scooped scarab about 0.5 km/h (0.31 mph)

A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

It belongs to the scarab beetle family, together with chafers and other dung beetles.

There are two forms of it, called subspecies.

Dung beetles help the soil by burying droppings, which feeds plants.

you asked

Most asked questions about Scooped scarab

?What does the scooped scarab eat?

Animal dung. That makes it a helpful cleaner in fields and pastures.

?Is the scooped scarab dangerous?

No. It is a small, harmless beetle.

For bug experts

Scientific name: Onthophagus hecate
Named by: Panzer, 1794
Group: Beetles
Family: Scarabaeidae
Classification: Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
Lives on: North America

Where the facts come from

Onthophagus hecate (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 Kaldari. CC0, 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.

Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip