The huge glistening Oil Beetle is one of the few residents that actively seeks the searing midday heat of Andalucia.
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She has no need to hide as she drags her giant swollen abdomen across the baking earth.
These colours of black and red are the universal signs of poison in nature, and when she is attacked these poisons ooze out from between her leg joints and body segments.
Safe within the knowledge of her own toxicity, she blithely pushes on through the parched grass in search of food and a mate.
There is a deadly beauty in her shining black and livid red armour, and she is a perfect part of the infinite variety, each organism fulfilling its role within the great hoops of life.
Photo: Oil Beetle on the mountain. Courtesy of the author.