Left tuna is ripe, and ready to go. One on the right is just beginning to ripen. Left one is covered in cactus bugs. Thats their common name; “Cactus Bug”. its a leaf footed bug that only eats prickly pear cactus pretty much. They have piercing mouthparts so they can bite you, and occasionally do if you piss one off. Prickly pear is delicious. I will be back at this park in the next couple weeks when the tunas start to fire off to pick a grocery bag or two of them, and make some jelly. The park I was at probably had several thousand tunas, but I think I only saw two or three ripe ones, the rest were still green.
ETA a shot of one cactus laden w tunas
