If you’re a what-have-they-ever-done-for-us? sort of voter, you will be won over by the minotaur beetle. It’s as spectacular as any beetle, the shiny black male sporting three bullish horns on their thorax. But the minotaur is also one of that great hidden army of invertebrates who keep our planet functioning – clean and fertile – without us even knowing.
The minotaur is a dung beetle and roams across grassland and heathland at night devouring mammalian droppings.
There are more than 5,000 species of dung beetles across the world and they are a crucial “keystone” species because they bury dung in the ground to feed their young – cleaning up, recycling nutrients, fertilising the soil and helping to disperse seeds. One study estimates the value of dung beetles clearing British pastures and fertilising soils to be £367m a year.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
But the minotaur is also one of that great hidden army of invertebrates who keep our planet functioning – clean and fertile – without us even knowing.
The minotaur is a dung beetle and roams across grassland and heathland at night devouring mammalian droppings.
One study estimates the value of dung beetles clearing British pastures and fertilising soils to be £367m a year.
It grows to only 2cm but the male packs a punch with its short central horn and two long ones either side.
The male mostly labours above ground, collecting dung pellets, dragging them backwards and inserting them into the burrow.
Each minotaur larva is left with enough food to develop rapidly, while the exhausted parents die in midsummer.
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