Dung beetles roll their feasts of dung away to avoid other competitos at the dung pile. But now researchers from South Africa and Sweden have discovered that they also use their balls in another, rather clever way. The moist balls keep the beetles cool even as they push a weight up to 50 times heavier than their own bodies across the hot sand.
"The beetles climb on top of their moist balls whenever their front legs and heads overheat," said Marcus Byrne from Wits University. "We stumbled upon this behaviour by accident while watching for an 'orientation dance' which the beetles perform on top of their balls to work out where they're going. We noticed that they climb their balls much more often in the heat of the midday sun."
This phenomenon only held true when the beetles were crossing hot ground, beetles on hot soil climb their balls seven times as often as those cooler ground. To show that it was the beetle's hot legs that made them climb the ball, the researchers applied some silicione boots to their front legs as protection from the heat. "To our great surprise, this actually worked, and beetles with boots on climbed their balls less often," said Jochen Smolka from Lund University.
This phenomenon only held true when the beetles were crossing hot ground, beetles on hot soil climb their balls seven times as often as those cooler ground. To show that it was the beetle's hot legs that made them climb the ball, the researchers applied some silicione boots to their front legs as protection from the heat. "To our great surprise, this actually worked, and beetles with boots on climbed their balls less often," said Jochen Smolka from Lund University.
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