In the last 10 years the collection has increased by about 500 newly added or newly named species,' says Max, who has collected dung beetles all over the world. 'The most recently named was a new ...

The Egyptians made sense of the rising and setting of the sun by attributing it to a scarab beetle, or dung beetle, rolling away the sun, as they had seen the dung beetle roll balls of dung.

The scarab beetle lays its eggs in a dung ball and so it appeared that new life sprang from this dead matter. Ancient Egyptians also believed that a god in the form of a giant scarab rolled the ...