Who is the Cactus Bug?
One of the things I love most about being a nature photographer, is that you never know what you may come across on an outing. My discovery of the cactus bug was once such instance. I set out on that day to get photos of some mimosa trees that were blooming and looking awesome. I ended up finding the cactus bug, too.
I had gotten quite a few closeup and macro shots of the lovely pink, yellow, and green flowers, and their buds that were just starting to bloom. I had backed off a bit, and had gotten some shots of some of the branches that were sporting flower clusters.
Finally, I wanted some shots of the whole tree, and the only way to get those was to completely cross the little country road I was on. Even then I was too close, so I walked into the brush on the side of the road. Just then, some thing pricked my ankle, and when I looked down, there was a prickly pear cactus. And it had several black and yellow bugs on it. As I looked closer I also noticed that they had pretty red eyes. So of course, time for some pics!
Later, I put one of the pictures into my PictureInsect app (made by the same people as the PictureIt app) and learned more about the cactus bug. They live their entire lives on the prickly pear and are highly specialized. The adults and the larvae eat the juices from the pads of the plant by pushing their mouth parts through the tough skin. When females lay their eggs, they shelter them on the undersides of the larger spines. Females can lay several generations of eggs in their year long lifespan. They are native to most of North America, South America, and Australia.
So, I started out with one goal in mind; getting photos of the mimosas, and ended up meeting, photographing, and learning about a new (to me) and pretty cool insect. It’s hard to ask for more than that from a walk in the woods!
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