By Susan Milius
Here’s a reason to keep eyes on the skies while dealing with dung on the ground: Variations in the color of light in different parts of the sky can act as a compass, at least if you’re a dung beetle.
Greenish and ultraviolet variations in daylight could be enough for the beetles to steer by.
In lab tests, Scarabaeus lamarcki beetles manage to keep moving along a relatively straight path when given either or both colors of LED lights as guides in an otherwise dark room, Basil el Jundi of Lund University in Sweden and his colleagues report.