Here is a close-up image of a Stilt Bug (Berytidae) nymph on a developing Devil's Claw
(Proboscidea) seed pod. This is about as close as I have ever come to producing a "studio" shot
(if you could call the kitchen counter a studio). The plant was actually a stem that broke off from
a plant outside. My wife decided to put it in a vase in the kitchen where the stem has survived for
more than two weeks. The plant bloomed while indoors and produced this fruit. I wanted to get a
picture of the small Devil's Claw pod and was amazed to see it covered in fine hairs containing a
drop of sticky fluid at each tip. This image is from the third day of taking pictures of this pod,
this time capturing a very small Stilt Bug nymph. The nymph is no more than 3 mm long, and that
would be a generous estimate of its size. I had to really bump up the ISO setting because the nymph
was moving quite a bit, especially the antennae; this is about the only shot where it didn't move
much during the exposure.