Dung beetles use their dung ball as a mobile thermal refuge
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منابع مشابه
Dung beetles use their dung ball as a mobile thermal refuge
At midday, surface temperatures in the desert often exceed 60°C. To be active at this time, animals need extraordinary behavioural or physiological adaptations. Desert ants, for instance, spend up to 75% of their foraging time cooling down on elevated thermal refuges such as grass stalks. Ball-rolling dung beetles work under similar thermal conditions in South African savannahs. After landing a...
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Dung beetles belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, and are mostly within the subfamilies of Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae. They are given their name because they feed partially or exclusively on feces. Each species of dung beetles can be classified as one of several types: rollers, tunnelers and dwellers. Rollers roll the dung into round balls, which are then used for brooding chambers or as a...
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When the moon is absent from the night sky, stars remain as celestial visual cues. Nonetheless, only birds, seals, and humans are known to use stars for orientation. African ball-rolling dung beetles exploit the sun, the moon, and the celestial polarization pattern to move along straight paths, away from the intense competition at the dung pile. Even on clear moonless nights, many beetles still...
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Animals eat different foods in proportions that yield a more favorable balance of nutrients. Despite known examples of these behaviors across different taxa, their ecological and physiological benefits remain unclear. We identified a surprising dietary shift that confers ecophysiological advantages in a dung beetle species. Thorectes lusitanicus, a Mediterranean ecosystem species adapted to eat...
متن کاملSpectral information as an orientation cue in dung beetles.
During the day, a non-uniform distribution of long and short wavelength light generates a colour gradient across the sky. This gradient could be used as a compass cue, particularly by animals such as dung beetles that rely primarily on celestial cues for orientation. Here, we tested if dung beetles can use spectral cues for orientation by presenting them with monochromatic (green and UV) light ...
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ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: Current Biology
سال: 2012
ISSN: 0960-9822
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.08.057