A group of researchers at University of Lund, Sweden, recently found that dung beetle have three such species that walk unlike other insect species, i. e. with a galloping gait.

Publishing the study in online journal Current Biology, the researchers affirmed that the three species were found walking with an irregular tripod gait. They walked inch by inch and stepped forward three legs at once.

Seemingly, said the group, the beetles were dragging their back legs.

The reason why the beetles moved this way has not been known. Dr. Jochen Smolka and colleagues took the findings as a surprise as there is a significant shift in the movement of the beetles from the earlier times.

Dr. Smolka stated that the aim of the research was to determine how these beetles used to navigate to their burrows. The study was conducted on wingless desert dung beetles in South Africa.

Smolka added that they could note from the study that one of the species was apparently moving up and down. It was being done in a strange way.

"Like a bounding hare, the beetles propel their body forward by synchronously stepping with both middle legs and then both front legs", said the team.