Animal name: earth sweeper-

there is a mysterious insect, which is burly and covered with shiny armor. As early as about 6, years ago, it was discovered by the ancient Egyptians, and it was believed that this mighty beetle was made into a very delicate ball bigger than its own body by the will of God. Do you know what it is?

This black beetle is a dung beetle. They have hard typical wing sheaths and special petaloid antennae. But dung beetles are not like bees-they give people sweet honey and pollen; Nor does it show gorgeous dancing and light posture like a butterfly. It only feeds on dirt and garbage and takes feces as its burrow, so it also has an elegant name-"dung beetles". They are humble, low, dirty and hated by many people, but I will praise them because they are the scavengers of the earth!

1. The earth sweeper

1. The dung beetle rolls a dung ball

The dung beetle is very interesting. If it finds human or animal dung, it will be made into a dung ball. When making dung balls, they first pile up the dung together with their heads, and then beat it into a ball with their front feet. At this time, the "husband and wife" work together, one pulling in front and the other pushing back, so that the dung ball rolls forward. After rolling to the predetermined place, the female dung beetle digs a hole in the dung ball with her head and feet, lays her eggs in it, and then pushes the ball into the hole dug in advance and buries it with soil. Hatched larvae feed on dung balls until they turn into pupae in the soil. This is why dung beetles roll dung balls, which can not only make them thrive, but also prevent environmental pollution.

2. China dung beetles take root in Australia

Although dung beetles are so humble, they can play a great role. Without them, it is really disastrous. For example, Australia, which has always been famous for its animal husbandry in the world, raises tens of millions of cows, and many cows discharge hundreds of millions of tons of feces every day, covering more than 4, hectares of grassland. At the same time, cow dung also breeds maggots, and the grassland is also degraded in a large area, causing serious environmental pollution. This incident has left Australians with a headache. Later, they introduced dung beetles from China and asked them to help "clean up", so that the grassland was revived and the animal husbandry continued to develop.

aren't there any dung beetles in Australia? Yes, but the dung beetles there don't eat cow dung, but only kangaroo dung. It seems that dung beetles in different places have different habits.

3. Dung beetles treat municipal solid waste

Nowadays, municipal solid waste is usually treated by burning and burying, which not only pollutes the environment, but also consumes manpower and material resources. I think, if we train some dung beetles to clean up the garbage, especially the garbage that can't be recycled and the sundries that people don't want to get close to, then the problem of garbage pollution will be solved. In addition to cleaning up the garbage, we can also make use of the dung beetle's characteristic of rolling dung balls, and use some biotechnology to change their genes, so that it can not only roll dung balls, but also roll high-radiation objects that the human body can't touch, which is not only cheap, but also beneficial.

2. Forecasters

In the twilight around the evening, we can often see pairs of dung beetles busy working in the fields and buzzing around, which will indicate a sunny day the next day; If you see a single dung beetle running around mindlessly, it will be cloudy the next day. From this, we can see that dung beetles are also keen weathermen.

Small insects are mysterious, and we have yet to study dung beetles ...

Yesterday, dung beetles were born in a dunghill, unknown; Today, it has attracted much attention and its value is extraordinary; Tomorrow, we will use the power of science to turn fantasy into reality and add a more glorious stroke to the biological world.

resources: /ReadNews.asp? NewsID=969