A Strange Looking Bug

This little critter came in through the front door. Fortunately, they are not usually found in the house. I had no idea what it was. It's a pretty small insect, so I didn't see the strange antennae until after I had downloaded the photo. The antennae made identifcation fairly easly - with the help of Google. It is a type of scarab beetle. The three prongs are but part of many that the beetle can fan out. It was lucky that it was not closed. It may have taken longer to identify. By the way, they use the antennae to "smell" for food.

Another name for the scarab beetle is dung beetle. Yep, they eat dung as well as carrion and dead plants. Gross, but necessary. Here are a couple of interesting couple of facts I came across. Scarab beetles have been around for 150 million years. They ate dinosaur dung! There are 35,000 different species of scarab beetles that have been identified and it is thought that there are another 15,000 yet to be discovered.

Those strange antennae really got me curious. I searched a few websites before finding the interesting information. I'm not an entomologist, so I really wasn't looking for a bunch of technical information. It seems only fitting that the website I found that has the most fascinating and fun information is called - Scarabs for Kids! It's a fun website. I'm glad this little critter led me there. I only have one request of the scarab beetle - please stay outside!