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Plant seed mimics poo, tricks dung beetle

By the time dung beetles recognize the ruse, they have already buried the plants' seeds in fresh soil.

By Brooks Hays
The seed, on the left, tricks dung beetles by mimicking antelope feces, on the right. Photo by Joseph Douglas/Mandla White
The seed, on the left, tricks dung beetles by mimicking antelope feces, on the right. Photo by Joseph Douglas/Mandla White

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The quest for survival inspires plants and animals to adopt all sorts of bizarre tactics. One of those tactics is "fecal mimicry."

For the African plant restiads (Ceratocaryum argenteum), fecal mimicry is the key to ensuring the continuation of the species. For plants to produce offspring, they need to spread their seeds.

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Some plants produce fruits, which when eaten by animals send the seeds hidden inside on a free ride to new territory. Others lend their seeds aerodynamic qualities, leaving the wind or rain to do the work. Restiads rely on the dung beetles to conquer new soils.

By producing seeds that look and smell like animal droppings, the tall, grassy plant tricks the dung beetle into carrying and planting its seeds in new locations. Dung beetles roll animal feces into little balls, using them as a food source and nest. By the time dung beetles recognize the ruse, they have already buried the plants' seeds.

Scientists knew that restiads' seeds were being dispersed, but until now, they didn't know how. By scattering more than 125 seeds on the ground, each with a glow-in-the-dark thread attached (dung beetles often work in the dark), researchers filmed the beetles rolling the seeds away.

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During their work, the researchers -- in the University of Cape Town and the University of KwaZulu-Natal -- noticed the seeds looked especially like the dung of a species of antelope called bontebok. When the scientists chemically analyzed the plants' seeds, they found the tiny balls produced a variety of the same volatile compounds found in antelope dung.

Their work was published this week in the journal Nature Plants.

"There has been a lot of chemical evolution going on to get the beetles to do the job," Jeremy Midgley, an entomologist at Cape Town, told the New Scientist.

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