Ball-rolling dung beetles in the savannas of South Africa roll their prizes away to safe, secure locations, away from competition. These fresh, moist balls of dung contain nutritious liquid that the beetles feed on, but researchers have discovered something more: They may also be keeping the beetles cool.
When their front legs and heads overheat as they traverse hot sand, the beetles pause and climb atop their dung balls. ?They touch their head with their front legs and use their mouth parts to also touch their legs,? said Jochen Smolka, a neuroethologist at Lund University in Sweden and one of the study?s authors. ?They are most likely regurgitating liquid to cool themselves with.?
The findings appear in the journal Current Biology.
The preening behavior occurs only during the hottest times of the day, Dr. Smolka said. His team found that beetles on hot ground climbed to the tops of their balls seven times as much as beetles on cooler ground.
The beetles followed a cycle of rolling the ball for about six to seven seconds, then climbing on top of it to perform the preening behavior for about six seconds, and then rolling again.
The ground temperature in the savannas can exceed 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and the beetles? front legs increased in temperature by about 10 degrees when it was very hot. The dung ball, however, stays cooler, usually between 86 and 95 degrees.
To conduct their study, Dr. Smolka and his colleagues applied silicone boots to some beetles? front legs to keep them cool and found that beetles with the boots were less likely to climb on top of the ball. The researchers were not able to verify that the beetles regurgitate liquid and apply it to themselves, but ?that?s the next step,? Dr. Smolka said.
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