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| Dung beetle | |
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| Scarabaeus viettei (syn. Madateuchus viettei, Scarabaeidae); picture taken in dry spiny forest close to Mangily, western Madagascar | |
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| Superfamily: | Scarabaeoidea |
Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or only on the dung of mammals. They are a kind of scarab beetle. All these species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, and most of them to the family Scarabaeidae. The subfamily Scarabaeinae alone has more than 5,000 species. There are dung-feeding beetles in other related families, such as the Geotrupidae (the 'earth-boring dung beetles').
Many dung beetles, known as rollers, roll dung into balls, which are used as a food source or brooding chambers. Other dung beetles, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in dung. They are often attracted by the dung burrowing owls collect.
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