The Delights of Dung

Chris Bentley
, 19 May 2021
The Delights of Dung
Female Minotaur Beetle

For an insect, dung is a good thing to get into! It is available all year round and is an important and ubiquitous food source for many invertebrates (and vertebrates), supporting whole communities (with different dung types often supporting different communities). Some merely use the dung as a hunting ground and are predators as both adults and larvae, e.g. ‘Dung Devils’ (Ontholestes spp.) or the Hornet Robberfly, (Asilus crabroniformis), while others are dung feeders for only the larval part of their life-cycle, with the adults using another nutritional source, such as other invertebrates e.g. Common Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) and Sphaeridium beetles, or nectar and pollen such as certain hoverflies and species such the house-fly Eudasyphora cyanella.

RXOntholestes murinus with Eristalis pertinax prey 09 Drab Dung Devil (Ontholestes murinus) lives up to its name, predating a hoverfly which has come to lays its eggs

Probably the most specialised element of the community are those species which are dung feeders at all stages and probably the most important of these are the dung beetles. In the UK there are over 60 species living either within the dung or tunnelling below it and these beetles perform a range of important functions. For one thing imagine the piles of dung that would build up if there were no dung feeding insects! We’d be neck deep in it in no time! Australian cattle farmers encountered a similar problem in the 1950s as antipodean insects had evolved to deal with dry marsupial dung rather than the wet pats of cattle. The accumulating dung was reducing the area of available pasture and providing a breeding ground for pestilential flies and many years were spent introducing dung beetles before the problem was solved!). It is estimated that about 80% of the nitrogen in the faeces remaining on the pasture surface would be lost without the actions of these beetles. Species such as Minotaur Beetle (Typhaeus typhoeus), Dor Beetles (Geotrupes spp.) 

Rx 800px Dor beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius) The Dor Beetle Geotrupes stercorarius. Larvae live in dung which the adults have buried. Image: Jessica Towne

and the very rare Horned Dung Beetle (Copris lunaris), which actually bury dung, recycle nutrients in the soil, improving grass growth and therefore the amount and quality of food available to grazing animals. They also break up the soil and improve drainage and aeration and their activities are also responsible for seed dispersal both vertically and horizontally. In addition, buried dung is no longer available to certain species of nuisance fly and this coupled with the fact that dung beetles also carry mites on their body when they travel between piles of dung, which then feed on the eggs of the flies, reduces their overall numbers. 

RxEudasyphora cyanella 19 The house-fly Eudasyphora cyanella

Their activities can also reduce the numbers of cattle parasites in the dung by speeding up the drying process (the parasites generally like it ‘wet and warm’).  In addition, it has also been shown that dung beetles can reduce greenhouse gas emissions! Dung beetle tunnels in cow pats aerate the pat and the extra oxygen shifts the balance away from methane producing microbes (which don’t like oxygen), reducing the methane emissions from a single pat by up to 40%! The beetles are also an important food source for many other creatures including bats and birds. 

Gail Hampshire Melinopterus (Aphodius) prodromus Flickr gailhampshire Aphodius prodromus, one of a number of beetles whose larvae live within dung. Image: Gail Hampshire

However, in recent years several species of dung beetle have become increasingly uncommon, with over a quarter of UK species now being ‘Nationally Rare’ (found in 15 or less 10×10km squares) and four probably extinct! Changes in farming practises and the disappearance of livestock from historic pastures are a major factor in this decline in the UK, as are changes in the diet of modern livestock (particularly high protein diets) which make the resulting dung less suitable as a food source for the beetles. Ironically, considering their natural role in parasite reduction, one of the main causes of decline is the overuse of wormers such as Ivermectin, These chemicals come out in the cattle dung and while the adult dung beetles will still be attracted, they can be fatal to some beetle larvae as well as causing side-effects such as egg failure.

 

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783083711.55330 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1783083711.58120.0279Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783083711.58130.0001Server address: 216.73.216.95
1783083711.58130Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783083711.58130Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/the-delights-of-dung
    [s] => the-delights-of-dung
    [1] => the-delights-of-dung
)
1783083711.58160.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783083711.58280.0012 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783083711.58450.0017 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22568388
1783083711.58530.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22568388
1783083711.5860.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-03 13:01:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-03 13:01:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783083711.58760.0016 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='the-delights-of-dung')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-03 13:01:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783083711.59030.0026 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783083711.59090.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2531 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-03 13:01:00'
1783083711.59190.001 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783083711.59260.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783083711.59320.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=88 LIMIT 1
1783083711.59370.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1783083711.59420.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=36 LIMIT 1
1783083711.59480.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=49 LIMIT 1
1783083711.59540.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783083711.59560.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783083711.59650.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-03 13:01:00' AND postSlug='the-delights-of-dung'
1783083711.61880.0222Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783083711.61930.0005 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783083711.6210.0017Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783083711.62130.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783083711.62230.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1783083711.6240.0017 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783083711.62730.0033 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783083711.62790.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783083711.63010.0022Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783083711.63020 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783083711.6310.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783083711.63140.0004 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783083711.6340.0025 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783083711.63490.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783083711.63560.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783083711.63850.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783083711.63970.0012 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783083711.64250.0028 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783083711.64320.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783083711.64350.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='9' LIMIT 1
1783083711.64440.0009Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783083711.64480.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='the-delights-of-dung')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-03 13:01:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783083711.64720.0025 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783083711.64780.0006 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783083711.650.0022Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783083711.6510.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2531 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783083711.70190.0509 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783083711.70210.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783083711.70240.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='9' LIMIT 1
1783083711.70330.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783083711.70390.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783083711.70460.0007 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783083711.70680.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783083711.70740.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783083711.70930.0018 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783083711.71050.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783083711.71120.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783083711.71170.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783083711.7140.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783083711.71460.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783083711.71660.0021 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783083711.71970.0031 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783083711.72040.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783083711.72090.0005 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783083711.72330.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783083711.72390.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783083711.72590.0019 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783083711.72850.0026 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783083711.72920.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783083711.72980.0005 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783083711.73220.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783083711.73280.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783083711.7350.0022 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783083711.73640.0013Request time: 0.1844
1783083711.73640Process time: 0.1842
1783083711.73640Memory: 1.6527