One of the many living things you usually don’t notice in the desert – a specimen of the leaf-footed bug in the genus Chelinidia (family Coreidae; identification courtesy Joe Cicero at the University of Arizona). On a hike this past weekend, a middle school student found this beetle inside the stalk of a dead agave plant. Agaves flower only once, at the end of the lives, but do so by growing a very impressive reproductive structure.

Nice to know that this stalk provides habitat for other creatures too!