A callotropis plant and a beautiful insect!

I am not a zoologist or an entomologist and hence I dont know what this insect is. Looks like it is a leaf eating grasshoper like insect. What attracted me very much is its beautiful body colours and how cleverly it hides itself with its matching colours (This is a tiny insect and what you see here is a macro closeup shot).

Somehow, this fellow resembles a painted African dancer with vivid and beautiful paintings all over his body. How beautiful is nature? Another interesting point occured to me was that the insect was sitting on a callotropis (Erukku in Tamil & Malayalam) plant which itself is a toxic one and is often refered to as organic pest control properties. So this insect should be a special chap which can even withstand the toxicity of the callotropis leaves.

Like Callotropis, there are many such plants which has insect repellant properties like the Ipomoea (the weed which grows abundantly in water bodies) and interestingly this plant is called "Besharam" (shyless plant) in Hindi which shows its ability to withstand both floods and extreme drought. The leaves of Sitha Phal (Custard Apple), Adathoda, Nochi etc.

In these Nochi especially is a very interesting plant. One of its properties was to reduce sexual desire, and it is recorded that Roman wives whose husbands were abroad with the legions spread the aromatic leaves on their couches for this purpose. It became known as the chasteberry tree. These were also used in Monasteries and came to be called as Monk's pepper. See www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-Med/_Herbs/h174.htm for more details about this plant.

Coming back to our beautiful insect, we sometimes forget the diversity of nature and we knowingly or unknowingly destroy it also. And this beautiful insect is just reminder as to how they have adapted to the nature. We also should remember that the man is a very recent phenomenon in the Earth's history and these little insects and cockroaches etc. have been inhabiting this planet for much longer. May be they are saying, "Look at these creatures called man. They think they know everything and they kill themselves. How long will they survive in this planet if they continue to harm the mother nature?".