Wayanad: After a gap of 116 years, a group of foreign researchers in Sri Lanka has discovered a new grasshopper species called pygmy twig grasshopper. The grasshopper has been named 'Cladonotus Bhaskari' after 28-years-old Kerala based conservation researcher Dhaneesh Bhaskar.
Bhaskar is a native of the Padinjarethara in Kerala's Wayanad district. He has made significant contributions to conservation research in India.
The new species of the twig hopper was recently discovered in Sinharaja Rain Forests in Sri Lanka, by the researchers from Germany and Croatia.
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One of the tiniest among the grasshopper species, Cladonotus Bhaskari cannot fly and is only found in rain forests.
Dhaneesh is a member of the Grasshopper specialists group called Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He is also is a researcher with the Kerala Forest Research Institute.
Dhaneesh’s recent studies on the negative impact of large-scale burning at Eravikulam National Park on many insect species in the habitat, including grasshoppers, had grabbed international attention.
Dhaneesh is the son of Padinjarathara Sumathi and Bhaskaran and has a wife named Arunima who live in Kerala.
