Many years ago, I visited the lush green forests of Agumbe in Karnataka in the monsoons. The rain forests of Agumbe are located on a plateau above the Someshwara ghats at a height of approximately 640 m above sea level. Agumbe is really well known for the work that Romulus Whitekar (better known as India’s Snake Man) is doing on the King Cobra.
I visited Agumbe in the monsoons because that is the season I get to see many creepy-crawlies, which are amongst my favourite group of creatures! Every evening during my short visit, I used to be out walking alone in the forest with a torch, looking for interesting creatures. Owls hooted in the distance. Bats whizzed above me. Bush frogs called from the bushes. I felt alive in this magnificent rain forest.
Just outside the place that I stayed was an areca nut plantation. Walking through the plantation, my torchlight fell on something green. I realised that it was a small insect which was on the trunk of the areca nut palm. Each time I attempted to look at the insect, it quickly moved to the other side of the trunk. For a few minutes, the insect and I played hide and seek with each other, till the insect tired of the game and stood still! My torchlight finally illuminated the insect. Wow! The insect was stunning; bright green in colour, it had a blue outline on its wings. Just above its head was a beautiful dash of yellow.
After I spent a few minutes of observation and photography, suddenly the insect jumped up and hopped out of sight into the darkness! The insect I had been watching is called the Butterfly Bug. These soft bodied insects are bugs that feed on plant sap. The butterfly bugs secrete a solution called honeydew, which ants, wasps and other insects like to feed on. So the ants hang around near the butterfly bug, protecting it, and in turn the bugs let them feed on their honeydew. By doing this, both the butterfly bugs and the ants benefit.
The butterfly bug is also called a planthopper because, on being disturbed, it quickly hops away, as I realised to my surprise! Butterfly bugs can be seen both during the day and night, so the next time you visit a green area near you house, see if you can find them. An inch-long, brightly coloured insect that hops away when you approach it, may just turn out your very own butterfly bug!
Did you know? Agumbe is the location where the famous TV serial Malgudi Days was filmed!
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