Common Dor Beetle: (
Geotrupes stercorarius) Today Dawn goes to let the cat out into the back garden and says 'Austin, what's this weird beetle on our garden step?' I went to take a look and I was surprised to see a dung beetle.
Excited, I grabbed my camera and macro lens and snapped away, this was a UK first for me and a brilliant, welcome addition to my garden.
The Dor Beetle is one of the largest members of the Family Scarabaeidae (Dung beetles) and are important because they get rid of a lot of animal faeces, breaking it down and incorporating it into the soil, so helping in the recycling of nutrients.
This also makes the world a less smelly place to live in and reduces the numbers of other insects like flies which would otherwise breed in it.
This individual also had a large colony of mites living on its coxo, abdominal segments and across it's thorax. Apparently this is common for Dor Beetles but was pretty weird to see.
