DUNG BEETLES THE MILKY WAY LEXIE DAVIS CHEYENNE

DUNG BEETLES & THE MILKY WAY LEXIE DAVIS, CHEYENNE ELLIS, MITCHELL PEASNALL, STEVENSON JOHNSON, AND JUANNE GIRAVI

”DUNG BEETLES USE THE MILKY WAY FOR ORIENTATION” • Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke H. Scholtz, and Eric J. Warrant • Department of Biology, Lund University

CLASSIFICATION Domain: Eukarya Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Coleoptera Family: Scarabaeidae Genus: Scarabaeus Species: Satyrus

DUNG BEETLES MATERIALS AND ENERGY SOURCE • Dung beetles are coprophagous insects, meaning they eat excrement of other organisms • Most prefer to feed on herbivore droppings rather than carnivore waste • Dung beetle nests are provisioned with excrement, and the female usually deposits each individual egg in its own tiny waste ball

REPRODUCTION OF THE DUNG BEETLE

WHAT OBSERVATIONS LED TO THIS STUDY? • “On clear moonless nights, many beetles still manage to orientate along straight paths. ” • They suspected that vertebrates, spiders, and insects use star orientation but it had never been proven to be true. • Conducted experiment to understand how dung beetles navigate through certain paths.

HOW DO DUNG BEETLES NAVIGATE?

WHAT WERE THE RESULTS? • Dung beetles that had cardboard caps over their eyes were not able to navigate through the stars. • Transparent caps over dung beetles’ eyes did not make a difference in the way they orientate through a path.

HOW DID THE AUTHORS INTERPRET THE RESULTS?

CITATIONS • Tray Barlett “Subfamily scarabeinae-Dung Beetle” Bigguilde. net/node/view 2950 3 May 2010 Web 10 October 2016 • The editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica “Scarabaeus Sacer” Britannica. com/animal/scarabaeus-sacer 23 July 2012 Web 10 October 2016 • Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke H. Scholtz, Eric J. Warrant “Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way For Orientation” December 4, 2012

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