Chapter 5 The dung beetle's industrious cleaner
Roll the ball hard.
The first mention of dung beetles was six or seven thousand years ago. When farmers in ancient Egypt were watering their fields, they often saw a chubby black insect crawling around in the field, busy rolling a ball-like thing backwards. The ancient Egyptians believed that this ball was a model of the earth, and the dung beetle's movements were inspired by the movement of the planets in the sky, so they considered it very sacrosanct, so they called it the "sacred beetle".
Speaking of that ball, don't think that dung beetles are precious to it, just because it's something delicious. Actually, that's just the dirt that dung beetles collect from the road, and a lot of it is garbage.
Since dung beetles have the ability to rub round balls, let's take a look at its body structure first. In front of the dung beetle's flat, flat head, there are six teeth arranged in a semicircle, like a curved nail rake, which can be excavated and cut, throwing away what is not needed and picking out what you like. Dung beetles' bowed front legs are also a useful tool because they are sturdy and have five serrations on the outside of the legs. If the dung beetle needs a lot of strength to carry some obstacles, it will have to use its powerful forearms. When it sees something good, the dung beetle will swing its toothed arms left and right, sweep the useless things aside, clear a small area, and then rake the selected thing to the front and roll it between the four hind legs. These four hind legs are long and thin, especially the back pair, which is a bit curved in shape and has sharp claws at the top. The dung beetle uses these two hind legs to press the material under its body, rub and rotate, roll back and forth, and after a while, it is rubbed into a small round ball. In a few moments, the ball would be the size of a walnut, and soon it would be the size of an apple. If it encounters a greedy dung beetle, it may also make a ball the size of a fist, depending on its interest.
Once the ball is rolled, it's time to transport it home. The dung beetle grabs the ball on its hind legs, walks on its front legs, hangs its head down, lifts its hips, and walks as it pushes. It takes the things that are piled up in the back and pushes them backwards in turns, left and right. The ball was heavy relative to the dung beetle's body, and the stubborn little guy pushed it step by step, very carefully. finally reached a certain height, but the dung beetle was careless, and the ball bone rolled down, and even dragged himself down. In the face of such difficulties, the dung beetle did not lose heart, but regrouped and once again moved up with all his strength. Halfway through, the dung beetle may trip over the grass roots, or step on a smooth stone and fall, and all the efforts will be wasted. It is not uncommon for this to go back and forth one or twenty times without success, but the dung beetle always keeps trying and is not discouraged until it finally wins.
Bandits killed halfway.
In a food processing factory where dung beetles gather, a dung beetle quickly made a round ball, and wanted to leave its kind and carry it away. At this time, a latecomer had not yet started his work, and when he saw this, he put down his work and ran to the side of the ball to assist the master in pushing the ball. If you think it's a warm-hearted helper, you're wrong, but it's a robber with sinister intentions. There are many lazy dung beetles who are unwilling to pay hard work and patience, and always covet the fruits of other people's labor. Wouldn't it be easier to grab the food all at once while others weren't looking?Even if the means are a little despicable sometimes, so what does it matter, anyway, it just saves trouble.
A dung beetle pushes the food halfway through, when suddenly a fellow of the same kind flies up and knocks its owner down, and then it crouches down on the ball, its front legs close to its chest, and stares at its master, ready for the impending fight. If the master is not willing to let the ball he has worked so hard to make be taken away and gets up to take it, the robber will punch the master again and beat the master to the ground. The owner, who had been attacked one after another, was furious, and got up and shook the ball, and when the ball swayed, the robber could fall down. What ensued was a wrestling battle, in which two dung beetles writhed at each other, legs twisted and joints entangled, their carapaces colliding and rubbing against each other, making metallic filings. After fighting for a while, the winner was decided, the master won, and the robber was driven away in disgrace. Sometimes, the master has just defeated a robber, and may meet a second robber, at which point, the master who has been exhausted from the struggle will lose the ball he has worked so hard to make. There's no way around it, who made it so unlucky?
Some robbers are very cunning, they feel that they will not have good fruit to eat if they snatch it directly, and sometimes they take some time to resort to some more cunning methods. They will pretend to help their owners roll food, walk through sand, walk through small ravines, but use very little effort, and other than that they sit on top of the ball for sightseeing. Arriving at the storage site, the owner began to dig down with his head with sharp edges and toothed legs, throwing the earth behind. And the robber held the ball and pretended to be dead. The hole dug by the master is getting deeper and deeper, and the figure of the master who is working can no longer be seen on the flat ground. Of course, the host is also very worried about his food, and will occasionally come up to take a look. At this time, the robber lay on the edge of the ball, and slept there motionless, as if in a sweet dream. As soon as the master saw this, he continued to dig hard. The robber saw that his master had not come up for a long time, so he quickly pushed the ball away, and ran as fast as a thief. If the robber comes up before he has gone far from his master, the robber immediately changes his position, as if the ball had rolled to the side and he pushed the ball back, hiding his motive for snatching the ball seamlessly. In this way, the master and the robber pushed the ball into the storage room together as if nothing had happened.
Of course, there are many times when the robbers escape safely, and the owner can only consider himself unlucky. But it's not a big deal, if the ball is lost, just make another one, doesn't it just take a little effort?The indomitable spirit of the owner is really admirable.
When dung beetles bring their food home, they store it safely. They usually store their food in dug holes in shallow sand or loose earth burrows, which are about the size of a fist, have short lanes leading to the ground, and are just wide enough to fit a ball. The food is stored, and it's time for the dung beetles to enjoy. They blocked the exit with some waste and stayed inside, and the balls filled the room, piling up from the floor to the ceiling, leaving only a narrow path between the food and the wall. The host sits there, maybe two, but most of them are one, enjoying the delicacies of the mountains and the sea, and it will eat without interruption for a week or two until it has eaten all the food it has stored.
Pear-shaped baby room.
Since the balls made by the dung beetle are just its food, we can't help but wonder what its eggs are in **?
I was lucky enough to find a dung beetle's nest without much difficulty. This nest is easier to find, as it has a very typical feature, there is always a small pile of new soil next to the nest, which exposes the target. After digging for a while, a hole was dug open. In the fresh earth, I saw a delicate pear-shaped thing, and next to it was a dung beetle, which was holding its product vigorously, and it was clear that this pear-shaped thing was still in the final stages of work, and it was still finishing the finishing touches.
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This pear-shaped thing, the dung beetle is made from the waste discarded by people, and it is a little better than the material they usually make into round balls, and it has been selected to a certain extent, because it is for the larvae to be fed, and if it is rough, it will not meet the needs of larval growth. After the larvae come out of the eggs, they are not able to forage for food on their own, so they eat the snacks carefully prepared by the mothers around them.
Dung beetles always put their eggs on the narrower end of something pear-shaped, which of course makes sense. Because no animal on earth can live without air. Even if the eggs look perfectly wrapped, there are many small holes in the shell to allow air to circulate. If the dung beetle puts its eggs on the thicker and larger end of the pear-shaped thing, the larvae will suffocate to death. Because the walls are too thick, the texture is very fine, and there is a hard shell on the outside, so the air can't get in at all. When dung beetles make pear-shaped things, they make the walls very thin, and the materials used are more breathable, so that some air can enter the middle of the pear-shaped things. After making a pear-shaped thing, the dung beetle lays its eggs here. After the eggs are hatched into larvae, although they are weak, they can eat right away, and then they will slowly grow and also slowly become stronger.
If you think it's useless for dung beetles to make the other end of a pear-shaped thing big, you're underestimating dung beetles' IQ. They have a reason to do so. Generally speaking, dung beetles do not dig deep burrows, and when the sun shines strongly, the temperature in the burrow will rise very high, and after three or four weeks, the food will be dried out and inedible. After the larva is born, if the food around it is as hard as a stone, it will not be able to bite at all, and it will starve to death miserably. In the heat of August, many larvae are starved to death in this way. To prevent this from happening, the dung beetle uses its thick forearms to desperately clap the surface of the pear-shaped thing, forming it into a protective crust to resist the heat outside.
Once, I happened to see a dung beetle working in a crypt and witnessed the whole process of making something pear-shaped.
The dung beetle found the right material, shut itself in the ground, and got to work wholeheartedly. The materials needed can be obtained in two ways: one is the usual rolling balls, which will stick to some dirt or fine sand in the process of pushing, and the skin will also become hard. The other is that you can find a suitable place to make a crypt near the material, and the dung beetle will save a lot of effort, just select, bundle, and transport the material back to the cave.
The labor began, and the dung beetle first patted the material with its two hind legs to make a round ball, and then made it into a pear shape, and the side close to the ground was already glued with a layer of fine sand, and the other parts were ground smooth. Next, the dung beetle makes a ring around the "pear" and exerts a certain amount of pressure until the ring becomes a deep groove and the "pear" becomes a bottleneck. In this way, a protrusion will appear at one end of the ball. In the middle of the protrusion, the dung beetle exerts pressure to make a small crater-like cavity with thick edges, the pits get deeper and thinner, and finally form a bag. It smooths the inside of the bag and lays the eggs in it. At the tail end of the "pear", it is stuffed with a handful of fibers.
Dung beetles in other places have tried their best to shoot with their legs, only this bag mouth did not shoot, but only sealed the bag mouth with very rough fibers, which is very wise. Because the tail end of the egg is facing the seal, if it presses the plug down hard, the hatching larvae will be painful. Therefore, the dung beetle only plugs the hole with a plug, but does not press the plug down, which is also a sign of the dung beetle's carefulness and intelligence.
Growth of larvae.
Dung beetles lay their eggs in "pears" for about seven to ten days, and the eggs become larvae, which they unceremoniously gnaw at the surrounding walls. These little bugs are very clever and always gnaw on the thick side of the wall, and if they bite the thin side, they will bite the "pear" out of the hole, and then it may roll out of the "pear". It's a nuisance, it can't leave this pear-shaped pantry until it grows up, otherwise it can't find food on its own, and its body is not fully developed, and it will be 100% doomed. In a few days, the larva that eats a lot every day will grow very fat, but its appearance is ugly, with a bulging back and **transparent. If you hold it in front of the light, you can clearly see its internal organs. I think that if the ancient Egyptians had seen the larva in this shape, they would never have imagined that it would become such a majestic and beautiful beetle in the future.
After the first molt, the little insect is not yet an adult, although we can already recognize the shape of the beetle. Now, this little bug is beautiful, its wings are coiled in **, like a wide tie folded up, and the front legs are located under the head. The color of the body is translucent, with a bright yellow color like honey, and it looks like it is carved out of amber. The bug stays like this for more than four weeks, and then it sheds another layer of skin.
The little insect after the second molt is red and white, which is also very beautiful. Before turning black into sandalwood, it has to molt several times, and the color of its body will become darker and harder, until it wears armor and becomes a fully developed dung beetle.
During this time, it has been living in a pear-shaped storeroom. When fully developed, it is eager to break free from its crust and sunbathe in the sun. However, whether it will succeed or not depends entirely on the circumstances at the time. Generally, when it comes out, it's hot, dry August, which is the hottest season of the year. If it doesn't rain for a few days, this pear-shaped pantry will become as hard as a brick, and it would be wishful thinking for the little beetle to come up with it on his own. If it rained a little, the pear-shaped thing would be softer, and the little beetle would struggle with its legs, hit it with its back, and with some effort break through the wall and crawl out of its cage.
I once did an experiment where I put a couple of these pear-shaped things in a box and let them stay dry. In the morning, or in the evening, I often hear a sharp grinding sound in the shell, which must be a small insect grinding the wall with a rake of its head and front legs. After two or three days, there didn't seem to be much progress. I poked a small hole in a pear-shaped thing with a small knife, but it didn't make any practical sense to the little bugs. In less than two weeks, there was no movement in the pear-shaped thing, and I think the little bugs must be dead. I found a few more pear-shaped things, wrapped them in a damp cloth and put them in a bottle, and sealed them with a lid. When the moisture soaked the pear-shaped things, I put them in the box. The experiment was a success, and with my help, the little ones bravely stood up on their legs, using their backs as levers, and identified one point as a top hit. Finally, it broke through the wall and managed to come out.
After it comes out, it starts a new life of its own, just like any other adult.
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