A female harlequin bug trying to escape the camera by hiding in the seed pod of a bottle tree. Cattle work today and in between activities I took the opportunity to escape the heat in the shade of the bottle tree. Used the breaks to capture a few shots of the bugs that live on the tree. The females mother the nymphs and when I disturbed the cluster of babies on the twig above this one she hurried up to them to check on their safety. It was as if she counted them all to see they were all there. Amazing.
