Scarabaeus-sacer_10

Description:

Scarabaeus sacer Lin., syn.: Ateuchus retusus Brull, Scarabaeus europaeus Motschulsky, Scarabaeus impius FabriciusFamily: ScarabaeidaeEN: Sacred scarab beetle, DE: Heilige Pillendreher, Mistkfer Slo.: sveti skarabej, drekobrbecDat.: May 1. 2019Lat.: 45.01150 Long.: 14.67882Code: Bot_1188/2019_DSC05836Place: Adriatic Sea, Island Krk; north of Mt. Veliki vrh, Kvarner bay, Rijeka region, Croatia EC. Habitat: stony high mountain flats, low grassland in patches among rocks; occasionally grazed by sheep; calcareous, skeletal ground: almost flat terrain; open, sunny, dry, hot during the summer and wind-swept place; average precipitations 1.500 ~ 1.600 mm/year, average temperature 10-12 deg C, elevation 454 m (1.490 feet), Sub-Mediterranean phytogeographical region. Comment: The dung beetle Scarabaeus sacer was sacred to the ancient Egyptians. It was found in many old paintings and jewelry of that time. The beetles skillfully and in fierce hurry roll a peace of dung over grassland and sand ground. But this activity is not predominantly transport of the dung from place to place, as it may appear at first, but fashioning of a perfectly round ball by rolling it. Often male and female beetle work hard in tandem in a perfect coordination and mastering of equilibrium. They burry the balls after they are sufficiently firm and spherical in the ground and lay their eggs in them. Dung beetles can eat more than their own weight in a day and are therefore helpful to humans because they speed up the process of converting manure to substances usable by plants and reduce natural loss of nitrogen from the manure of the grazing cattle by burring it under the ground. Experiments have shown that the activity of these beetles on one hectare of a pasture may result in benefit of up to 130 kg of nitrogen (Ref.:2), which is essential for the fertility of the ground.Ref.:(1) Fauna Europas, Bestimmungslexikon, George Westermann Velag, Brounschweig (1997), translated to Slovenian, Mladinaka Knjiga, Ljubljana (1981), pp 384.(2) www.researchgate.net/publication/287573589_Soil_nutrient_...