How to Use dung beetle in a Sentence

dung beetle

noun
  • Through a dung beetle’s compound eyes, stars appear as blobs, not as points of light.
    — New York Times, 29 July 2021
  • The dung beetle has been deemed the strongest insect on Earth.
    — Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, 19 Jan. 2023
  • An hour into the bush and a dung beetle had already pushed its namesake orb across our path.
    — AFAR Media, 30 Oct. 2025
  • And there is probably less pig dung available for dung beetles.
    — Bydennis Normile, science.org, 25 Apr. 2023
  • My papa’s house furled and unfurled, high as a church steeple in some parts, and low as a dung beetle in others.
    — Okwiri Oduor, Harper’s Magazine , 22 June 2022
  • There is also a species of tree frog, a dung beetle and a genus of dinosaurs named after the character.
    — Taylor Nicioli, CNN, 13 June 2024
  • The top is carved to look like a dung beetle, while the bottom is flat and inscribed with hieroglyphic text.
    — The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 22 Apr. 2025
  • To escape competition at the dung pile, a ball-rolling dung beetle forms a piece of dung into a ball and rolls it away.
    — Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 8 Dec. 2014
  • Animals from seals to dung beetles rely on the stars or moon in dark skies for navigation.
    — Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Oct. 2024
  • When there are lots of species of dung beetles around, and faeces vanish quickly, an ecosystem is assumed to be in good shape.
    — The Economist, 11 Jan. 2020
  • After 15 minutes of searching, despite the warm day, there are no dung beetles.
    — Ari Daniel, NPR, 22 Nov. 2024
  • To find out whether these same genes guide horn growth, Hu and his team genetically tinkered with dung beetles.
    — Erica Tennenhouse, Science | AAAS, 21 Nov. 2019
  • Using scent detectors on their antennae, dung beetles home in on a pile of feces and descend en masse.
    — Jason Bittel, National Geographic, 24 June 2019
  • The dung beetle, Scarabaeus nigroaeneus, as its name suggests, eats the faeces of large grazing mammals.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2012
  • In one entry, a dung beetle climbs out of a dead man’s mouth; a jellyfish floats between buildings in another.
    — Tim Diovanni, Dallas News, 23 July 2020
  • The researchers also set up cameras to record animal presence, as well as insect traps to keep track of flies and dung beetles.
    — Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2025
  • Certain dung beetle females have even evolved horns that may be used for battling with other females in contests over access to males.
    — Jake Buehler, Quanta Magazine, 2 Aug. 2021
  • But Australian dung beetles were used to recycling marsupial dung and could not tackle the cow chips.
    — Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, WSJ, 20 June 2019
  • For example, energy spent growing one large body part may leave another body part smaller, as seems to be the case with the dung beetle's horns.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 29 Oct. 2013
  • And now Dacke has discovered yet another tool in the same dung beetle’s sensory array.
    — Jason Bittel, National Geographic, 24 June 2019
  • Essentially, wherever there is mammal poop, there's going to be dung beetles.
    — Ari Daniel, NPR, 22 Nov. 2024
  • In the right light and aspect, dung beetles are strikingly colorful and, yes, beautiful creatures.
    — Shannon Tompkins, Houston Chronicle, 3 May 2018
  • Previously, a dung beetle and some hare remains had been the only signs of animal life at the site, Willerslev said.
    — Maddie Burakoff, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Dec. 2022
  • But by the 1960s, native Australian dung beetles were struggling in the mire of sticky, non-native cow pats.
    — Richard Jones, Smithsonian, 10 Jan. 2018
  • Some antiparasite treatments in cattle can harm dung beetles, for example.
    — Gretchen Vogel, Science | AAAS, 6 Sep. 2019
  • For the nocturnal African dung beetle Scarabaeus satyrus, this becomes a useful reference point.
    — Fiona McMillan, National Geographic, 4 Nov. 2019
  • In fact, the dung beetle is the first animal known to navigate via the subtle glow of the galaxy as a whole, rather than by individual stars.
    — Breanna Draxler, Discover Magazine, 25 Jan. 2013
  • Habitat loss, the use of pesticides and climate change are threatening insects of all shapes and sizes, including the not-so-glamorous dung beetle.
    — Adam Yamaguchi, CBS News, 24 Feb. 2024
  • Though dung beetles of the world have many different behaviors, their most famous maneuver involves rolling fresh excrement into a ball.
    — Liz Langley, National Geographic, 4 Feb. 2017
  • Sheldon and her team have found that smaller dung beetles struggle to dig deep enough to protect their offspring from the warming climate and extreme temperature swings.
    — Adam Yamaguchi, CBS News, 24 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dung beetle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: