student at Case Western Reserve University, and Engasser is now a collection specialist of the O’Brien Collection at Arizona State University. Stone conducted the researcher with fellow forensic ecology graduate student Emmy Engasser during their time at Wichita State University, under direction of Mary Liz Jameson, Ph.D., Stone is now a Ph.D. “This research provides evidence that dung beetles have a direct attraction to carrion rather than an indirect attraction to the dung of a decomposing animal, but it is important to remember that this work doesn’t provide evidence of actual carrion feeding,” says Rachel Stone, lead author of the paper. It appears they no longer have to wonder. Therefore, until now, scientists questioned whether dung exposed by decomposition or the carrion itself attracted the beetles. (Photo by Mary Liz Jameson, Ph.D.)īecause carrion is a secondary food for dung beetles, they are not considered necrophagous, which means primarily feeding on carrion. They found that more beetles congregated at the fore rather than the aft end of the carrion, which suggests they were drawn to the carcass itself, not dung in the gastrointestinal tract at its rear, as has been hypothesized in the past. Researchers Rachel Stone (left) and Emmy Engasser (right) spent a year baiting dung beetles in traps with dead rats on the Kansas prairie to evaluate whether dung exposed by decomposition or the carrion itself attracted the beetles. The dwellers departed from the norm and showed no preference for head or tail, distributing themselves evenly over the carcass, suggesting that like tunneling and rolling, attraction to the head of a carcass is a later behavioral development in dung beetle evolution. So-called “roller” dung beetles make balls of poop and roll them off, “tunnelers” bury it, and “dwellers” crawl into it, displaying what scientists believe is the original dung beetle behavior. The results of the research indicated that, at least in this case, more beetles congregated at the fore rather than the aft end of the carrion, which suggests they were drawn to the carcass itself, not dung in the gastrointestinal tract at its rear, as has been hypothesized in the past.ĭung beetles eat carrion along with their dietary mainstay, which is, not surprisingly, poop. The title refers to whether the beetles are attracted to the head (or cranial) end of the rat or its tail (or caudal) end. Researchers who spent a year baiting dung beetles in traps with dead rats on the Kansas prairie managed to avoid the risk but still come up with a catchy title when they reported their findings this month in the journal Environmental Entomology: “ Heads or Tails? Dung Beetle Attraction to Carrion.” When the research targets dung beetles, on the other hand, there’s rare opportunity to wax playful with words but, as well, the real risk of scatology. By and large, the titles of scientific research papers can be pretty stodgy.
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