"Tumblebug" is an American rural colloquialism for dung beetle. A dung beetle is a large beetle that makes marble-sized spheres out of the nutritious matter of cow patties and horse apples, and then rolls these little 'orbs of ordure' away and buries them in the ground. The females deposit their eggs in the ground along with these dungballs, and when the eggs hatch, the dung serves as food for the grubs. The tumblebug performs a valuable service by moving fertility from the surface, where it tends to get in the way, to below the surface, where it can break down more quickly and release its nutrients to the roots of plants instead of into the air.
In areas where tumblebugs are plentiful, they can clean up a cow patty in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, due perhaps to modern "farming" practices, tumblebugs are rather scarce in many parts of the country. In our part of Iowa, they were once common but are seldom seen now.
Tumblebugs are also known as scarabs. That's right, the lowly poop collector was once revered by the Egyptians as a sacred symbol of the sun. Why? Because a ball of dung being trundled across the plain by a scarab beetle reminded the Egyptians of the sun's transit across the sky. If you look at most Egyptian representations of the scarab, you'll notice that the ball of dung is part of the picture . . . or is that supposed to be the sun?
We find the metaphor as apt as did the Egyptians: the lowly dung beetle as an earthly (and earthy) symbol for the royal sun. The sun is the ultimate bringer of all life. But much closer to home, as the Egyptians realized, there would be precious little life if nutrients could not be recycled, and the tumblebug excels at returning nutrients to the underworld, whence they can return in the shimmering green shoots that become our salad, our bread, our meat, and our milk. That's the circle of life, baby.
You won't find too many references to tumblebugs on the 'net, but here are a few: