Khepri's Beetles

                 When I was younger, the mention of scarabs would send shivers down my spine. I had watched The Mummy and The Mummy Returns so many times that I would have nightmares of being eaten alive with the creatures crawling beneath my skin only to splurge out of my mouth. Occasionally, Brendan Fraser would come to the rescue. Other nights, I would be one of many zombies with a scarab in the brain chanting, "Imhotep." Those nights were rough. Needless to say, trips to Egypt were out of the question. After several days, the dreams subsided. Only after a few years did I find out that the scarab beetle doesn't favor human flesh. Instead, they happen to be the pickiest of eaters for the strangest food: poop. Scarabs will only have the finest grade-A, grass-fed poop. With this exchange for a less disturbing piece of information, my younger self closed the source and walked away less scared of the world and its inhabitants.

See why they scared me?!

                  It was not until yesterday that the vast Scarabaeidae family caught my eye once again. There was a link on my Entomology course's page that consisted of several speakers talking about the diverse family of beetles. One of the speakers devoted his time to discuss the interesting nature of dung beetles. In addition to the plethora of jokes about poop, he discussed the precision dung beetles show when transporting dung to their nests. According to the speaker, dung beetles make use of the sun's position to navigate the hot terrain of Africa. When the sun disappears below the horizon, the beetles will continue their trek across the deserts with the guidance of the band of polarized light in the atmosphere. It was really cool how they were able prove that the beetles use the polarized band. A scientist place a filtered lens of about two feet in diameter over the the dung beetle. Once the lens was over the dung beetle, the insect showed signs of disorientation and went in random directions before it finally was no longer under the lens. When escaped the filtered light, it resumed in the same direction it had been going before it encountered the lens.
                   Not only does the piece of dung serve as a food source for these beetles, but it also serves a cold reservoir on which dung beetles use to regulate body temperature as they travel over the hot sands. During a hot day, a dung beetle will frequently climb on top of the ball of dung to have the heat flow out of the beetle's "hands" and into the dung.
                    According to another speaker, beetles make up approximately a fourth of all the life on Earth. These insects are one of the most resourceful creatures on the planet. Dung beetles may survive on one of the most deplorable foods, but they survive. Statistically speaking, one out of four living creatures is most likely a beetle. I'm actually fine with this statistic as long as I am Paul or Ringo.