Coleoptera Oak Ridge, TN June 4, 2008
Coleoptera August 6, 2007 This beetle looked like a piece of polished brass. Pretty classy for a beetle that hunts for dung! It might have been searching for the horse dung that had been left behind on the hiking trail the previous weekend. Dung beetles are sometimes called "tumblebugs" because they roll balls of dung, deposit the ball underground and then lay an egg on it. Just imagine, dung being used as a form of "baby food"! The flat area in front of the mouth is used as a shovel to move the soil (thus the name "earth boring"). The beetle was injured and crawling on the ground. One of the flight wings is visible at the end of the abdomen.
Tiger Beetle
