Not all dung beetles like to roll their food (i.e. poop). In fact, a large majority of Singapore's dung beetles love to bury the dung instead! Such dung beetles are called tunnellers as they form tunnels directly under the dung source and bring down balls of dung into the soil. These balls serve as brood balls where female dung beetles lay their eggs inside. The hatched beetle larva then feeds on the dung brood ball from the inside out!
Singapore's largest recorded dung beetle is also a tunneller!
Male Catharsius molossus (Photo by Eunice Soh)
These big "dungabees" are able to bury large amounts of dung into the ground and thus "clean" the surface of the soil. This is also why their genus name is
Catharsius, which is derived from the Greek word
kartharsios, meaning purifier. Kinda cool huh. :)
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsius
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