It was rooted at the rear end of the food chain, but now the humble dung beetle is biting back.
A ferocious scarab species has been filmed in Peru attacking and eating millipedes 10 times its length.
D. valgum no longer dines on faeces. Instead, the nocturnal predator prefers to decapitate live prey with its armour "teeth" and then devour their insides.
It is a rare example of a scavenger species turning carnivore, say US scientists in a Royal Society journal.
SALEM - DIRT from ACEPHALE on Vimeo.
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