Body size 25 – 45mm, black colour, flightless. The development time from egg to adult is 4 to 6 months.
Dungbeetle Circellium bacchus was once widely spread throughout South Africa but is today limited to two localities. The largest population is in the Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape Province. Another stable population occurs at the Buffalo Valley Game Farm near Knysna.
The beetles are habitat specialists preferring dense undisturbed vegetation to more open, disturbed vegetation.
Circellium bacchus are generalist dung feeders and breeders but have a clear preference for elephant dung for feeding, and buffalo dung for breeding.
Feeding might take place at the dung site or in a small ball prepared and rolled away and eaten in a protected location.
Females produce only one egg per breeding cycle, usually one but sometimes twice a year. The fecundity is therefore low. When breeding, the female removes a portion of dung from the pile, pats it onto a ball and rolls it away, from a few to 100m, depending on when she finds a suitable site. When the ideal site is decided on, the female excavates the hole and the male then positions himself on top of the dung ball and sinks down with it, the depth is around 25cm.
Film on Youtube:
youtu.be/yYBrr-Bk6vs
