…it’s a rock!
Found this beautiful picture of a scarab beetle and its prize rock – perhaps he’s working out for his next dung ball battle.
Hey, that’s not a dung ball
insect
Dung beetles once were Gods
Yep, we were the most powerful insect God in Ancient Egypt
Khepri was his name and sun rolling was his game
The Ancient Egyptians watched my great, great, great, great ancestors as they rolled their dung balls across the hot Egyptian sands. They made a connection between dung ball rolling and the rolling of the sun. It was obvious, the Dung Beetle was the God in charge of the sun!
They believed that every morning Khepri would appear and roll the sun at sun rise. He would then continue rolling the sun across the sky until sunset. Khepri disappeared overnight, but wasn’t resting (dung beetles never rest). He continued with his roll into the underworld and faithfully reappeared the following day at dawn.
He was given the name Khepri, which comes from the word kheper – to emerge or come into being.
I’ve got the dung beetle blues
Well, not me personally, I’m a rather happy dung beetle, especially now that all my dung needs are more than catered for, since Marti’s backyard is full of golden retriever dung.
But, I digress, this poor fellow dung beetle hasn’t yet discovered that round dung balls are better for rolling when compared with cube shaped dung balls.
Watch this 5 minute Minuscule animation called Dung Beetle Blues to see how tough life can be when all you have is a cubed dung ‘ball’
Doug the Dung Beetle 