关于蜣螂，你需要知道和热爱的5件事

关于蜣螂，你需要知道和热爱的5件事

Who would expect greatness from a creature whose first name is essentially "turd"? The scarab beetle, despite being a kind of dung beetle, has been dining incognito, coasting on its name — and all that ancient Egyptian mystique — for millennia.

谁会期望一个名字本质上是“屎”的生物会变得伟大呢?圣甲虫，尽管是一种屎壳郎，几千年来一直以它的名字和古埃及的神秘莫测为食，隐姓隐名。

The dung beetle, on the other hand, has just been dining, literally, on dung.

另一方面，蜣螂只是在吃粪而已。

Dung beetles meticulously polish their turd balls to make them easier to cart home. (Photo: Villiers Steyn/Shutterstock)

But to walk away from this story with only that thought would be a disservice to dung beetles everywhere. This beetle is more like the unicorn of bugs.

但是，带着这样的想法离开这个故事，对各地的蜣螂都是一种伤害。这种甲虫更像虫子中的独角兽。

Now what exactly makes the dung beetle such a magical little insect?

那么到底是什么让蜣螂成为如此神奇的小昆虫呢?

1. Dung beetles give freshly polished balls of poo a good name.

蜣螂给刚擦亮的粪球起了个好名字。

There's no getting around the fact that dung beetles love poop. They build with it, nest in it, eat it — the word you're looking for there is coprophagous — and lord knows what else they do with it in the privacy of their own homes. But dung beetles also offer a powerful lesson to us all on how to use every precious atom of the resources we're given.

蜣螂喜欢便便，这是无法回避的事实。它们用它建房子，在里面筑巢，吃它——你在那里寻找的词是合食的——上帝知道它们在自己的家里还用它做什么。但是蜣螂也给我们上了一堂强有力的课，告诉我们如何利用我们所拥有的每一个宝贵的原子资源。

2. Their creations occasionally cause a great sensation.

它们的作品偶尔会引起轰动。

Tumblebugs — a kind of dung beetle particularly passionate about rolling balls of poo on the ground — don't make headlines very often. But considering the nature of their interests and hobbies, when they do, everyone makes quite a stink about about it.

Tumblebugs是一种蜣螂，特别喜欢在地上滚粪球。但是考虑到他们的兴趣和爱好的性质，当它们这样做的时候，每个人都对此大发牢骚。

Scarab beetles were lucky enough to be associated with divinity, hence avoiding more dung-y associations. (Photo: King Tut/Shutterstock)

3. They're the strongest animals on Earth.

它们是地球上最强壮的动物。

The brawniest bug — and likely, animal — on the planet is Onthophagus taurus, a type of horned dung beetle that's reportedly able to haul more than 1,100 times its own body weight. In superhero parlance, that's your average scrawny human towing six double-decker buses crammed full of people. (It's a pity Peter Parker wasn't bitten by a radioactive dung beetle. But then, Dung Man would have likely been a tough sell for Marvel Comics.)

地球上最强壮的虫子——很可能是动物——是食角金牛，一种有角的屎壳郎，据报道它能拖着超过自身体重1100倍的东西。用超级英雄的话说，那是一个骨瘦如柴的普通人拖着六辆满载乘客的双层巴士。(可惜彼得·帕克没有被一只放射性蜣螂咬伤。但话说回来，《粪人》对漫威漫画来说可能很难卖出去。)

4. They're brilliant navigators.

它们是杰出的航海家。

Many animals use the sun to navigate, rather than ever-changing and unreliable landmarks on the ground. But dung beetles set to their compass to a much higher power — the galaxy itself. Sure, by day they use the sun to get around. But when the lights go off, according to a 2016 study published in Current Biology dung beetles will chart a course by the Milky Way.

许多动物利用太阳导航，而不是地面上不断变化和不可靠的地标。但是蜣螂却把它们的指南针指向了一个更高的能量——银河系本身。当然，白天它们利用太阳活动。但是，根据2016年发表在《当代生物学》(Current Biology)杂志上的一项研究，当灯光熄灭时，蜣螂将沿着银河系绘制出路线图。

They may have a very intimate relationship with the ground, but dung beetles, like the earth-boring variety pictured here, pack a handy set of wings. (Photo: Dennis van de Water/Shutterstock)

5. They make wonderful parents.

它们是很棒的父母。

As a study published in Animal Behaviour points out, dung beetles are a rarity in the insect world for the care they shower on their young, although parental roles are strictly divided along gender lines. Dad brings home the bac— err, food. And mom is a bit of a homemaker, designing and building the living space. Some species, like Cephalodesmius dung beetles, even mate for life.

发表在《动物行为》杂志上的一项研究指出，尽管父母的角色严格按照性别划分，但在昆虫世界里，屎壳郎是罕见的，因为它们会悉心照料自己的孩子。爸爸把食物带回家。妈妈有点像家庭主妇，负责设计和建造生活空间。有些种类的蜣螂甚至会终生交配，比如蜣螂。