Because it rolls a ball of dung across the ground, it is known as the dung beetle. The Egyptians saw this behavior and compared it to the sun’s orb rolling across the sky. They mistook this balled food supply for the egg sack produced and buried in the sand by the mother dung beetle. The dung beetles would appear out of nowhere as the eggs hatched, making it a metaphor of spontaneous creation. It was associated with the sunrise in this role. The scarab-headed god Khepri.