These Beetles tend to work early in the morning for about four hours roughly around sunrise. They start off slowly at first, but their pace quickens once they have rolled a few beans back to the Nest. Scientists believe that the caffeine from the beans is absorbed through the beetles’ skin on their feet.

After their four-hour shift the beetles return to the nest and rest during the heat of the day. They normally then eat some of the mature beans and spend their late evenings working manically on flood defences for the nest. Nests at the bottoms of slopes could flood easily, but these beetles build channels at 45 degrees to the slope, which diverts water past the entrance to the nest, leaving their home dry even during the rainy season.

This is an extract from the book Animals Evolution Avoided