Beetles cooperate on tricky dung moves

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Dung beetles are among the strongest animals in the world. They also possess an exceptional ability to cooperate. Research shows that female and male spider dung beetles together are able to move large dung balls across difficult obstacles. However, same-sex attempts to do the same always ended in aggressive fights.

Dung beetles live in and on animal droppings. By breaking down organic substances, the tiny insects play an invisible yet important role in nature. Researchers have now discovered another task at which dung beetles excel.

Female and male spider dung beetles managed, in a kind of synchronized dance, to move balls of droppings, equivalent to 10 times their body weight over vertical obstacles of height up to 20 centimeters. The experiments were carried out in South Africa and Italy under the leadership of biology researcher Claudia Tocco from Lund University.

"We were very surprised to see that they could cooperate and help each other move an object without knowing its final destination. This is an ability that only humans possess. We believe that the dung beetles use tactile communication, but this has not yet been proven," says Tocco.

Another discovery was that the spider dung beetles roll their dung balls in a straight path even if they encounter obstacles along the way. When a rock or a log appears, they simply climb over the obstacle. The researchers were also able to establish that the advanced cooperation and climbing only applied to pairs of dung beetles of different sexes.

"When spider dung beetles of the same sex would try to cooperate, it always ended in serious fights that resulted in the dung ball breaking, or one of the dung beetles running away with it," says Tocco.

Provided by Lund University