The scarab beetle is a dung beetle, it lays its egg in a ball of dung that it buries in the ground. The egg hatches and the grub eats the dung and then pupates to emerge from the ground as a new adult beetle.
The ancient Egyptians saw how these beetles lived and emerged from dry ground and used this as a metaphor for the entombing and resurrection of their mummies. In this way the beetle became the Egyptian symbol for rebirth, the ability to be reborn.
The Egyptians also observed the beetle rolling its egg ball of along the ground, and the ball was identified with the sun and the beetle with the god Khepri who pushed the ball of the sun across the sky.
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