Friday fun: Scarabaeidae Scarabaeinae

November 17, 2006

Consumer warning: This has absolutely nothing to do with real estate!

Last December my wife and I took a one-month holiday in southern Africa. One of the highlights was a several day stay in Mokolodi Game Reserve near Gaborone, Botswana where we were entertained by several viewings of Scarabaeidae Scarabaeinae, more commonly known as “Dung Beetles.”

These remarkable scatalogically-obsessed creatures — sort of the Borats of the insect world — are about 2-3 inches long and expend an enormous amount of energy furiously and determinedly rolling up, uh, dung into balls the size of a lemon and pushing these balls — backwards! — to their nests. Nothing can stand in their way, not pools of water, not rocks many times their size, not curious camera-toting tourists.

Tags: Dung beetles

Written by Kevin · Filed Under Dung beetles 

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One Response to “Friday fun: Scarabaeidae Scarabaeinae”

  1. The Scarabaeidae Scarabaeinae Contest: What Does Google Consider You An Expert In? | 3 Oceans -- The San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate Blog on April 6th, 2007 5:40 pm

    [...] A few months ago I put up a brief fun post about dung beetles, surely one of the most comical creatures on this particular planet of ours.  Sure enough, Google now considers me the second most authoritative site for the search term Scarabaeidae Scarabaeinae (the scientific Latin name). [...]

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