Beetles are the biggest group of animals on Earth! Scientists have named about 400,000 kinds so far. That's roughly one out of every four animal species we know about. The tiniest beetles are about the size of the dot at the end of this sentence, while the biggest can be as long as a grown-up's hand.
Every beetle has a secret on its back. That shiny hard "shell" is really a pair of front wings that work like a protective case. The thin flying wings stay folded up underneath until the beetle is ready to take off.
The beetle family has some surprise members too. Ladybugs are beetles and so are Fireflies!
Scarab beetles have a funny job. They roll balls of dung (poop) across the ground, sometimes much bigger than they are!
The ancient Egyptians watched them and imagined a giant scarab god named Khepri pushing the sun up into the sky each morning which, for the ancient Egyptians, made the scarab a symbol of new beginnings (and the sun a giant shiny ball of poop)...
