What is Dung beetle?
{{Taxobox | name = Dung beetle | image = Scarabaeus_viettei_01.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = Scarabaeus viettei (syn. Madateuchus viettei, Scarabaeidae); picture taken in [[Afrotropic|dry spiny forest]] close to Mangily, western [[Madagascar]] | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Arthropod]]a | classis = [[Insect]]a | ordo = [[beetle|Coleoptera]] | superfamilia = '''Scarabaeoidea'''}} [[File:Dung beetle.jpg|thumb|230px|a dung beetle]] [[File:Dung beetle working-001.ogv|thumb|230px|Dung beetle rolling a ball of dung in the [[Addo Elephant National Park]], [[South Africa]]]] [[Image:Scarabaeus laticollis 2.jpg|thumb|230px|right|Two dung beetles fighting for a dung ball]] '''Dung beetles''' are beetles that feed partly or only on the [[feces|dung]] of [[mammal]]s.<ref>Since the group as a whole dates back to the [[Jurassic]], the habit of dung-rolling may have started with dinosaur dung.</ref> They are a kind of '''scarab beetle'''. All these [[species]] belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, and most of them to the family Scarabaeidae. The subfamily Scarabaeinae alone has more than 5,000 species.<ref>Frolov A.V. [http://www.zin.ru/animalia/coleoptera/eng/afrsc_ru.htm Subfamily Scarabaeinae: atlas of representatives of the tribes (Scarabaeidae)]. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.</ref> There are dung-feeding beetles in other related families, such as the [[Geotrupidae]] (the 'earth-boring dung beetles'). Many dung beetles, known as ''rollers'', roll dung into balls, which are used as a food source or brooding chambers. Other dung beetles, known as ''tunnelers'', bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the ''dwellers'', neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in dung. They are often attracted by the dung [[Burrowing owl|burrowing owls]] collect.<ref>Burrowing owls use dung as bait for beetles, which they eat. [http://www.umsl.edu/~renners/PollenSlidingNature2Sep04.pdf]</ref> == Taxonomy == Dung beetles are not a single taxonomic group: dung feeding is found in a number of beetle [[family (bi