The Horned Treehopper to remember about!

In our boyhood days, between our studies we used to explore the environment in the school play ground. We were examining the branches of Mesquite trees (Prosopis juliflora): ants were crawling up and down busily. There were also some black insects sitting on the path of these ants. They had a queer appearance with horn - like extensions on their heads. In side view, they appeared like a bull (student community called it as 'Yerrumbu Maaddu' in Tamil, meaning ant's cow!). This insect is the Horned Treehopper (Centrotus cornutus, Thorn bug). It feeds on the sap of the plants. This sap on digestion is converted into sweet honeydew and excreted out. Ants are attracted towards this honeydew naturally and they extract it for themselves. In exchange ants provide the hopper the protection from its predators.

As I approach this treehopper to hold it between my fingers it runs around the branch and hides itself behind it or flies away. Even if I get it and hold, its thorn - like horns do not injure me, even nowadays! A wonder insect to remember about and show it to the younger generations!

Fats determine your health!

Consuming fats in excess in any form whether it is oil, animal fat or dairy products, it surely adds the fats to the body increasing its weight. Apart from this fat deposition, the fats are also seen in blood, causing clogging in the blood vessels and hence, blocking the free blood flow to the organs of action such as heart, kidney, brain and muscles etc. This not only impairs the action of these organs but also makes them to strain at work producing all the illnesses such as Heart attack and Stroke. There are many types of fats among which some are good to the health and others are not - bad. From where do they come into the body?

Saturated fatty acids:Dairy products, Lard, Butter, Coconut oil, Palm oil, Chocolates .... Bad, when you take routinely.
Poly unsaturated fatty acids - cis (PUFA): Sunflower oil, Safflower oil, Fish oil .... Good.
Poly unsaturated fatty acids - trans (Transfats): Artificially hydrogenated oils - Margarine .... Bad.
Mono saturated fatty acids: Nuts, Olive oil, Groundnut oil, Sesame oil .... Good.
Triglycerides: Coconut oil, Palm oil, Animal fats .... Bad, if these raise this fat to 150 mg/dL and above in blood.
Low density Lipoprotein (LDL): Animal fats, Plant oils, Chocolates, Margarine .... Bad, if LDL is 100 mg/dL & above.
High density Lipoprotein (HDL): Fish oil, Sunflower oil, safflower oil ... Good, if HDL is 60 mg/dL and above.
Cholesterol: Animal fats, Cheese, Egg yolk, Chocolates, Palm oil, Coconut oil .... Bad, if it is 240 mg/dL and above.

In addition to choosing the good and the best fat diet for the prevention of Heart disease and the Stroke, we should also add the following:
1) Doing Aerobic exercises
2) Taking Anti-oxidants
3) Weight losing

Let us live a wonderful and healthy life by lowering these fats in our diet, and the body!

The Love Sign, Taj Mahal!

One's childhood days are precious. Children love all the things they come across with immaculate mind. It is needless to say about their love towards humans - their parents, peer groups, friends and ..... the boy/girl they see or meet! Family functions, festivals unite such tender hearts at such a tender age: one such a love in an Emperor's palace was continued into adult life, then into marriage and then even after death in a tomb or monument, The Taj Mahal of Agra! This monument is seen till today as the wonderful expression of Love to be seen by the whole world - all the races of mankind and its descendants, century after century.

Taj Mahal as seen in pictures convey you nothing spectacular. Only when you see it in front of you - as you walk towards it at Agra, its architectural magnificence and hence, the magnitude of its creator's intention can be felt in your mind!
Taj Mahal, the wonder of the world was built by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan (from 1632 AD, and completed in 1653 AD) - as a sign of his love towards his dead wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Now it houses the tombs containing bodies of both these lovers. It has been built with white marble entirely! On full moon days, at night it enthralls all who see it in the shower of moonlight, and makes them feel the 'wonder' about this Wonder of the World!

Wonders in Indian Coral Tree and in its seeds!

The Indian Coral Tree (Erythrina variegata, ‘Mul Murungai’ or ‘Sudukaai Maram’ in Tamil) blooms in the cool winter months of February and March, here in India. The flowers are bright red in color. They are seen grouped as bananas are seen. They are rich with nectar. Both their color and nectar attract many birds, like Humming birds and many insects like Honey bees. Whenever my Coral tree blooms, I find the honey bees build their hive even inside scooter’s exhaust pipe! These bees have colonized near the bountiful tree:

The tree is seen blooming even on the hills (for example, the nearby ‘Mahalinga malai’). It’s trunk is studded with short thorns that nobody climbs on it. Even wood cutters are reluctant to cut its wood for fuel!

Though I know about this Coral tree only in the recent years, I know well about its seeds in my early childhood itself:

 
Our group of children used to take out these seeds from the pods of this tree and brush hard one of it against the rough ground surface once or twice and press it on one another’s skin unwarily – to give the intense burning heat sensation that it produces!

This wonder tree with its seeds enchants me throughout my life! 

 

Cut Coral tree grows!

If you sow a seed, water and see tiny plant coming out, you get limitless bliss and pat yourself having done a wonderful job – as a child and also as an adult. You could also have imagined a tree coming out of a seed, as I did! Yes, I saw my tree in three years, as I imagined:

It was in full bloom and its flowers appeared like ’flames in the forest.” My tree is The Indian Coral Tree (Erythrina variegata, ‘Mul Murungai’ or ‘Sudukaai Maram’ in Tamil). But one day in its third year of bloom its canopy was cut down – for its growing up towards the sky (!), to avoid its touching the overhead electric lines:

I felt so sad about it for about two months till I saw tender leaves coming out of the stump:

You see here as it appears now:

I hope to see the wonderful reddish bloom once again on it in a year. Let us see!

Black Drongo chases Crows!

Still I remember the song (call) given by this bird about forty years ago! It is so melodious that it is pleasant to hear it every time. This bird’s monotonous call can be heard first at dawn before any bird could start calling. This bird is our Black Drongo (King Crow, Dicrurus macrocercus, ‘Karichaan Kuruvi’ or ‘Rettaivaal Kuruvi’ in Tamil). Anyone can identify this small black bird with its longer and forked tail. It sits higher on perches like electric lines, or rides on cow’s back, darting down now and then to catch insects and grasshoppers seen on the ground. Its delicacies are the Flying Termites at Monsoon season. And at summer time it is also seen near burning grasslands catching flies that escape out of fire.

This bird lays small eggs in cup like nest in April and the eggs hatch out in fifteen days, and the young ones fly out on the sixteenth day!

The bird chases away in flight even crows or mynahs that come near its nest! In doing so it makes a lot of noise alerting other birds.

I have seen this wonder black bird sitting on electric lines even at dusk, and near street lights catching insects at night!

Laminated Glass prevents injury!

Each time a glass cup or a plate is broken into pieces I take care that these do not injure the person handling them to dispose off. Still I see persons getting glass piece pricks into their feet as they walk on the rural roads. Nowadays there is also a change: I see smaller, regular and similar glass pieces (that resemble large sugarcane crystals) lying on the road when there is an accident, or on the fight scene in movie pictures! These pieces come out of Laminated Safety Glass (also called Automotive Glass). This special glass is a toughened and high strength glass. When shattered it holds together its broken pieces. It also prevents itself from breaking down into large sharp pieces even when it falls down from a height. Inside this glass there is an interlayer of Polyvinyl butyral (PVP). When it is broken the two outer layers of (broken) glass sheets are kept bonded only by this inner layer!

It is a wonder glass that doesn’t injure any one even when it is broken – unlike our heart!

Bagworms with jerky movements!

I often see some tiny spindle-shaped objects move on the floor of my room near the wall. They move in jerks. If I touch them they stop and restart to move on, as I take off my hand. They have the grey flattened casing around them with the head peeping out. (Here they resemble a just born human baby encircled with clothes all around!). These are the Bagworms (larvae of Bagworm Moths, Clania crameri). They have this bag or the case made of silk, and often have leaves or sticks stuck all around it. This nest-like encasing is said to be a protective mechanism against predators or the unfavorable environment (That’s why they have moved into my room escaping the hotness of summer!).

Hatching out from the eggs these larvae feast on the leaves voraciously. Male larvae grow up and attach to the twigs of trees and remain suspended pupating till winged adult moth comes out of it. But the female larvae stay as such inside their bags throughout their lives without developing into a winged adult!

It is a wonder larva of Bagworm Moths lurking inside its bag to grow and live!

Investigate this Toad Mystery!

I was wondering the other day at morning: what creature’s scat (animal dropping) could it be! It was black, shiny, smooth and of light weight in the shape of a capsule, lying on the garden. Could it be that of a snake or a bandicoot? I saw the scats each morning and was bewildered.

One day I crushed a scat into pieces with a stick: I found the shiny black heads of ants of various sizes in a brownish matrix! I was astonished. Could it be that of a toad?

Connecting the places where the trails of scats were found led me to the junk room where the toads usually lurk at daytime. Yes, those scats were those of Toads only (Bufo fowleri, ‘Theaurai’ in Tamil). Here in Tamil Nadu, there is a belief that if one kills a toad the person will be contracting the disease, Leprosy! I had tried to kill these toads: but I am often cheated by them. After an hour of beating and ‘killing,’ when I turn up to see the toad’s body it would have disappeared! Toads cannot be killed: they escape by playing dead. But they have to be beaten to pieces for that – as they attract snakes into the garden. Toads have been described in Puranic Tamil songs that they are seen even inside stones! They easily burrow into the sand and aestivate – to escape the unbearable hot and dry summer; their extra moist skin saves them from being dried up. They emerge out of the sand as soon as the monsoon starts.
This wonder toad camouflages to merge with the surrounding – with its brownish skin coloration!