For African beetles, dung balls double as 'air conditioning units'
Monday, October 22, 2012 - 13:31
in Psychology & Sociology
Some African dung beetles roll their feasts of dung away to avoid the hordes of other hungry bugs at the pile. But now researchers have discovered that the beetles also use the balls in another, rather clever way: The moist balls keep the bugs cool even as they push a weight up to 50 times heavier than their own bodies across the scorching sand.