dung beetle

noun

|Updated on: 19 Jun 2018

Definition of dung beetle

: a beetle (such as a tumblebug) that rolls balls of dung in which to lay eggs and on which the larvae feed

Recent Examples of dung beetle from the Web

In the right light and aspect, dung beetles are strikingly colorful and, yes, beautiful creatures.

— shannon tompkins, Houston Chronicle, "For hunters, South Texas colors a feast for the senses," 3 May 2018
One such flash caused me to look up from my watching of the metallic dung beetles.

— shannon tompkins, Houston Chronicle, "For hunters, South Texas colors a feast for the senses," 3 May 2018
Graney's version of her appears first as a precocious 11-year-old, redistributing treasury money from the military to the poor and ending a plague of flies with the help of her mother's pet jumbo dung beetle.

— tony adler, Chicago Reader, "In four hours, the Aristophanesathon never cracks the whimsy barrier," 18 Apr. 2018
The four zones are: Desert: Just beyond the entrance will be a dung beetle globe fountain, rope climb and an animal care facility adjacent to an exhibit featuring prairie dogs, burrowing owls and fennec foxes.

— roger showley, sandiegouniontribune.com, "$30M record gift will jumpstart a new Children's Zoo, opening in 2021," 12 Jan. 2018
But by the 1960s, native Australian dung beetles were struggling in the mire of sticky, non-native cow pats.

— richard jones, Smithsonian, "All Praise The Humble Dung Beetle," 10 Jan. 2018
Other studies have used bugs like mosquitoes and dung beetles, Gillett’s insect of choice, and could be added to rainforest surveys to increase the diversity mammals detected.

— kyle frischkorn, Smithsonian, "How Fly Guts Are Helping Researchers Catalog the Rainforest," 7 Aug. 2017
In the end, the humble dung beetle’s horns can give us a peek into the mechanisms underlying the vast complexity of animal forms, humans included.

— Smithsonian, "What Dung Beetles Can Teach Us About Sexual Difference," 22 Mar. 2017
Though dung beetles of the world have many different behaviors, their most famous maneuver involves rolling fresh excrement into a ball.

— liz langley, National Geographic, "Weird and Fascinating Ways Animals Use Poop," 4 Feb. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dung beetle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.