Dung beetles live in and on animal droppings. By breaking down organic substances, the tiny insects play an invisible yet important role in nature. Researchers have now discovered another task dung beetles excel at. Female and male spider dung beetles managed, in a kind of synchronized dance, to move balls of droppings, equivalent to 10 times their body weight over vertical obstacles of height up to 20 centimeters[CT1] . The experiments were carried out in South Africa and Italy under the leadership of biology researcher Claudia Tocco from 51重口猎奇.
鈥淲e were very surprised to see that they could cooperate and help each other move an object without knowing its final destination. This is an ability that only humans possess. We believe that the dung beetles use tactile communication, but this has not yet been proven鈥, says Claudia Tocco.
Another discovery was that the spider dung beetles roll their dung balls in a straight path even if they encounter obstacles along the way. When a rock or a log appears, they simply climb over the obstacle. The researchers were also able to establish that the advanced cooperation and climbing only applied to pairs of dung beetles of different sexes.
鈥淲hen spider dung beetles of the same sex would try to cooperate, it always ended in serious fights that resulted in the dung ball breaking, or one of the dung beetles running away with it鈥, says Claudia Tocco.