ABSTRACT.1Feeding burrows made byS.carnifexandD.torulosusadults consisted of tunnels filled with sausage‐shaped masses of dung. Brood balls were made by taking fragments of dung from an adjacent feeding burrow and aggregating them into a small sphere which was gradually enlarged and then coated with soil.2S.carnifexadult females showed no response to their own eggs (unlikeCopris lunaris:Klemperer, H.G. (1982)Ecological Erltonzology, 7, 155–167).S.carnifexlarvae made and maintained an air channel to the upper pole of the ball and they are in this respect preadapted to receive parental care.3Compared with a brood mass, a brood ball was less likely to be attacked by Meptoparasitic larvae. The soil coat retarded drying of the brood ball by increasing the total mass of moisturecontaining mater