Beetles of watching the stars

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters)-a species of South African dung beetle has proven to use the milky way to navigate, making it the only known animal that becomes Galactic spray of stars in the night sky for direction.

Researchers have known for several years that the inch-long insects use the Sun or the moon as fixed points so that they keep rolling balls of dung in a straight line-the quickest way to turn away other beetles at the pile of manure.

But scientists are puzzled about how the beetles, which perform a dance of orientation on top of their balls of dung before you leave, get a straight line on moonless nights.

To prove the theory of the milky way, scientists at wits University in Johannesburg took beetles in University Planetarium to see how they fared with a normal night sky and then one devoid of the milky way.

"The beetles no matter what direction they are going in. They just need to get away from the fight bun at the pile of poop, "said wits professor Marcus Byrne. "But when we turned off the milky way, the beetles are lost."

And on cloudy nights without Moon or stars?

"They probably just stay at home," said Byrne.

(Reporting by Ed Cropley, editing by Paul Casciato)

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