beetle – Christian Sperka Photography

2025-01-06

Canon on Eye-Level – Dung Beetles

Three male Dung Beetles were fighting over a freshly rolled ball.

These incredibly strong creatures, in relation to their body size, often try to hijack one another’s dung balls.

Their sense of smell must be incredible as they land minutes of the fresh dung leaving its producer and start turning the waste material into a breeding chambers and food sources for their offspring.

They bury the ball in suitable ground with the fertilized egg inside.

And the winner takes it all. The losers move off to find fresh dung for more balls!

Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f11/800mm | ISO 1250 | 1/500sec | ev+0 | WB 6500K | AV Mode

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2023-10-23

Sisyphus!

Often, as I am watching a Dung Beetle trying to roll its ball up a steep bank, I am reminded of the story of Sisyphus, a character in Greek mythology whose eternal task it was to roll a large ball up a hill – almost to the top – from where it rolled down again and Sisyphus had to do his task all over again.

These incredibly strong beetles can roll many times their own body weight. When doing so they actually walk backwards. The ball is food store and breeding chamber at the same time. It gets buried in soft soil and the female beetle lays her egg in the ball. Once the off-spring hatches it feeds on the dung before emerging into the light as one of the next generation of Dung Beetles.

Technical data: Canon R6 with EF lens f2.8/70-200mm | ISO 1600 | 1/2000sec | f2.8 | ev+0.5 | 150mm | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 70% of original image | hand-held

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2022-04-10

Blister Beetle …

Interesting fact: They are so called for their defensive secretion of a poison, called Cantharidin, which causes blistering of the skin. It is used medically to remove warts.

About 7,500 Blister Beetle species are known worldwide.

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2021-11-27

Hard Work

Some species of Dung Beetles can bury dung up to 250 times their own mass in one night!

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2021-01-13

Dung, beautiful dung!

That is what this beetle thought when he found some fresh droppings and started forming them into a large ball 😊

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