A snail-riding, slime-slurping dung beetle

Dung beetles don’t just eat dung you know. There are species that feed on fungi and rotting fruit, not to mention the very interesting beasts that use carrion (e.g. Coprophanaeus lancifer) and yet others that decapitate millipedes (e.g. Deltochilum valgum). Another anomalous dung beetle has even turned to giant land snails for food.

The genus in question is Zonocopris, which contains two described species – Z. gibbicollis and Z. machadoi. Both of these are found in the neotropics. 

Between 2.5 mm and 5 mm long, these are small dung beetles and easily missed, but then the best way to search for them is to find their host – giant land snails. The beetles ride around on the snails, crawling through the viscous slime on the mollusc’s mantle. Apparently, the snail’s slime is all they eat and they do so for quite some time as the adult beetles are very long-lived compared to most other dung beetles.

Like so many other animals, much of the biology of these beetles is unknown. For example, how and where the larvae live is a mystery that is worth solving.

There’s a bit more info on this strange genus of dung beetles in this paper.