Painted Grasshopper (Poekilocerus pictus)

The Painted Grasshopper is a large brightly colored grasshopper found in the Indian Subcontinent. Nymphs of the species are notorious for squirting a jet of liquid up to several inches away when grasped. It is also known as Aak grasshopper or locally in a few tribal areas called titighodo.

The half-grown immature form is greenish-yellow with fine black markings and small crimson spots. The mature grasshopper has canary yellow and turquoise stripes on its body and pale red hind wings. It changes its outward appearance by molting.

The grasshopper feeds on the poisonous plant known as crown flower

Upon slight pinching of the head or lower body, the half-grown immature form ejects liquid in a sharp and sudden jet, with a range of two inches or more, from a dorsal opening. The discharge is directed towards the pinched area and may be repeated several times. The liquid is pale and milky, slightly viscous, and bad-tasting, that the insect obtains from the plant it feeds upon.