Many of the Lamellicorn beetles are dung feeders, and they include the famous Scarabs and Tumble Bugs which roll balls of dung about before burying them. The dung-beetles are clearly not normal garden inhabitants but Aphodius rufipes is a very common visitor to houses in rural areas because of it's strong powers of flight and its fascination with light; it very often flies in through windows in the summer and then frequently collides with something and falls to the ground spinning noisily round on it's back in frantic efforts to right itself.

This beetle has the greatest affinity for the dung of horses, sheep and cattle. The female lays eggs into the dung itself, although the larvae will burrow into the ground before entering the pupal stage.

Did you know that a cow produces about 7 tons of dung per year, it's a jolly good job that we have beetles like these around isn't it.

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