dung beetle
Syllables: dung bee·tleUK/ˈdʌŋ biːtəl/
dung beetle noun: any of the beetle of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles), especially of the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae, noted for rolling dung into balls for use as food or as brooding chambers.
Noun
dung beetle (plural dung beetles)
- Any of the beetle of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles), especially of the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae, noted for rolling dung into balls for use as food or as brooding chambers.
- "They went in together. His was accepted and mine rejected. The title of his paper was 'The Reproductive System of the Dung-Beetle'." There was a general laugh.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
- What do dung beetles do? Adults and larvae of dung beetles feed only on dung and therefore are not a threat to the environment. This is in contrast to some other beetles found in dung pads, (not dung beetles) which feed on vegetable and other matter besides dung, while others are carnivorous. The...1990, Marina Tyndale-Biscoe, Common Dung Beetles in Pastures of South-eastern Australia, [Collingwood, Vic.?]: Division of Entomology, CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, page 2
- Any of the true dung beetles of subfamily Scarabaeinae.
dung beetle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Assamese
dung beetle in Hindi
- insect of the family Scarabaeidae
- गोबरैला gobrailā, गुबरैला gubrailā
dung beetle in Tamil
- insect of the family Scarabaeidae
- சாணி வண்டு cāṇi vaṇṭu
dung beetle in Telugu
- insect of the family Scarabaeidae
- పేడపురుగు pēḍapurugu
dung beetle in Assamese
- insect of the family Scarabaeidae
- গুবৰুৱা guborua
More languagesFewer languages
- dung beetle in Arabic
- جَعْل الرَوْث jaʕl ar-rawṯ, جِعْرَان jiʕrān, خُنْفُسَاء ḵunfusāʔ
- dung beetle in Vietnamese
- bọ hung
Examples of dung beetle in a sentence
- Adults and larvae of dung beetles feed only on dung and therefore are not a threat to the environment.1990, Marina Tyndale-Biscoe, Common Dung Beetles in Pastures of South-eastern Australia, [Collingwood, Vic.?]: Division of Entomology...
- And then there are dung beetles, feces-eaters extraordinaire.2005, Marty [Martha L.] Crump, Headless Males Make Great Lovers: And Other Unusual Natural Histories, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of...
- Without dung beetles, the world would be a dirtier place.2014, Emma Carlson Berne, Dung Beetles: Stronger than Ten Men! (Animal Superpowers), New York, N.Y.: PowerKiDS Press, →ISBN, page 22:
Forms of dung beetle
| plural | dung beetles |
|---|
Questions about dung beetle
- What does dung beetle mean?
- Dung beetle means any of the beetle of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles), especially of the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae, noted for rolling dung into balls for use as food or as brooding chambers.
- What is dung beetle in Hindi?
- Dung beetle in Hindi is गोबरैला (gobrailā), गुबरैला (gubrailā). See Dung beetle meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use dung beetle in a sentence?
- Adults and larvae of dung beetles feed only on dung and therefore are not a threat to the environment.
- What part of speech is dung beetle?
- Dung beetle is a noun.
- How do you pronounce dung beetle?
- Dung beetle is pronounced /ˈdʌŋ biːtəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of dung beetle?
- The plural of dung beetle is dung beetles.
Words near dung beetle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dung beetle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-dung beetle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dung beetle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dung_beetle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.