Description and photo of a scarab beetle

The African continent has a rich wildlife, a special place in it is occupied by animals, which are still considered sacred. The scarab beetle is especially honored by the Egyptians and other peoples of Africa; in some villages it is still worshiped, as it was thousands of years ago.

Photo and description of the scarab beetle

It is difficult to find an adult who has not heard about scarabs, for most it is associated with Egypt, the pyramids, the pharaohs. But you can meet him on other continents of the globe. Having learned what a famous insect looks like, it will be easier to identify it.

A photo of a scarab beetle will tell a lot about the insect, the characteristic features of appearance are:

• Black throughout the body, adults have a brilliant tint. It is extremely rare to meet a representative with a metallic-gray color. The green scarab beetle is fictitious; this color is not peculiar to the insect.
• The body shape is oval-elongated, with a strong chitinous coating.
• The head is small relative to the body; a platband with teeth is located on it to facilitate the extraction of food.

On a note!

The distinctive features of the male and female is the red fringe on the back pair of paws, nature has endowed the strong half with this decoration. Combines this type of insect vegetation on the abdomen and legs. Long hairs are considered their calling card in the same way as four teeth on the front pair of legs, which are used for digging and forming food into balls for more convenient transportation.

The sizes of individuals may fluctuate. The beetle in Egypt reaches 41 mm long. Smaller individuals are also found - only 9.5 mm in the more northern regions.

Where dwells

Most of us are confident that the habitat of the insect is quite limited. But this opinion is erroneous, the representative of insects rolling balls from manure is found not only in Africa. The beetle beetle, or beetle beetle, is distributed north of the Himalayas in Europe and Asia. In the Eastern Hemisphere, he failed to take root only in Australia. The Western Hemisphere did not become a home for him at all.

Due to the large accumulation of manure, insects are periodically imported to other continents, they cope with the problem that has arisen, but they are unable to take root either in Australia or on the American continent.

What eats

The Egyptians believed that there are scarabs that eat people, they crawl under the skin through the ears, nose and eat a person from the inside.

Interesting!

Science has proved that the carnivorous species of beetles does not exist, the species studied are absolutely safe for humans and animals.

Their food consists of manure, which is what they deserved universal love in ancient times. Dummies able to process for a short time a large amount of manure, which remains when keeping pets. Also, scarabs can be considered as orderlies in the wild. To eliminate the average pile of manure, four thousand scarabs will need only an hour of time.

In the middle lane, bugs begin active life as soon as the air warms up. They cleanse only during the day until mid-summer, and then move on to a nocturnal lifestyle. For a normal existence for 10-14 days, a scarab needs one ball of manure, five times the size of the insect itself.The beetle rolls it into a previously dug hole near its home and digs it. This is how a young beetle acts; at a more mature age, the male and the female harvest for future use a larger amount of manure. It is with the help of this type of waste that the reproduction of these insects is possible.

In order to prepare food for himself, a scarab rolls a ball from manure, it makes it funny enough:

• the basis is most often a small piece of feces of a round shape;
• the insect cuts off small pieces of manure from the edge of the head;
• front and hind legs presses a torn piece into a ball;
• the middle pair of paws holds the lump firmly, not releasing until the completion of the formation process.

The finished beetle rolls into a reliable shelter in a shaded place. On the road, he is very careful, because smaller beetles in larger numbers can take prey without problems. And relatives of the same physique do not disdain ready-made food.

Interesting!

Manure helps not only scarabs to live, the appearance of offspring also depends on it. The female and the male stock up on a sufficient amount of manure, lay it in minks, and then, in specially fashioned capsules, the female individual lays eggs. To the state of the chrysalis, they feed on dung, which their parents have provided for them.

Correct name

In Europe, the scarab beetle has many interpretations of the name, called dung beetle in different ways. The most common recognized beetle of sorrows, but this is a misspelling. All explanatory dictionaries say that it is correct to write and pronounce a scarab.

The inhabitants of the middle strip in tales call the insect a frogman, which is also incorrect.

Insect Sheets

The Egyptian pyramids brought fame to the bug, where a large number of its images were found in the form of drawings on the walls and papyrus.

The ancient Egyptians revered the beetle as a god, it was often depicted with a human body and the head of an insect, there are images of a beetle in a circle. Because of the plate with cloves on the head, the scarab was considered a deity close to the sun, they called him Heper.

Until a certain time, it was believed that insects are cannibals. It was they who scared the archaeologists and the destroyers of the graves, claiming that the Egyptian scarab beetle under the skin would quickly deal with a person, should he end up in the burial place of the pharaoh or take some thing from the grave.

Interesting!

Indeed, scarabs were found in the tombs of the pharaohs of Egypt, according to legend they were put in the grave to protect the rulers in another world from negativity.

Nowadays, the belief in the magical power of the scarab has not disappeared, it is often possible to meet such an image as a talisman for many influential people. At one time, it was fashionable and prestigious to wear a tie pin with a scarab, and the inlay was carried out with green gemstones. Accessories and jewelry are also made with such symbols that it should bring health and longevity to the owner.

The scarab beetle is quite common around the globe. It is not worth it to be afraid, it is not at all dangerous for people, the ancient Egyptians came to this conclusion. It was not for nothing that he was revered as a deity, putting him on a par with the gods Ra, Osiris, Tot and Horus. Rather, on the contrary, if this insect did not help in eliminating manure from forests and fields, then the globe would have long been stuck in this waste.