Dung Beetles Tire Of Dung

Instead, they want meat:

Dr Trond Larsen and his team set up more than 1,000 traps containing different treats to tempt the beetles, filming one adult attacking and killing an injured millipede, which dwarfed it in size, by decapitating it with its body armour.

Dr Larsen wrote: "This is a remarkable transition. Despite its close relationships with dung feeding species, D. valgum has entirely abandoned its ball-rolling behaviour. This is the first known case of an obligate predatory dung beetle species."

Dr Adrian Forsyth, a co-author of the paper, said: "It seems like such a huge jump - from a scavenger to a hunter-predator - so the real story is, how did it get from A to Z? We knew plenty of dung beetles which are attracted to dead insects - drawn by their potent cyanide-rich odours. And now we find a species which just couldn't wait."

He added: "This is a beetle which says: 'It doesn't matter if it's dead or alive, I'm going to eat it'. It's a nice example of how you can take an apparently big step - to become a carnivore."

The scientists believe the evolutionary transition has been driven by competition for food.

It is not the first time the dung beetle has been shown to be more sophisticated than its name suggests. In 2006, researchers found dung beetles are " fussy eaters", preferring horse dung to camel and sheep ordure.