THE JUMPING J JEAN 121. 



/ //( JutiipiiKj lUun — \A\\[unh\ iiielauobtUsis, ilnipsu. 



Uy A. T. JANSE. 



The Jiiiupiii^^ lU'jiii is too well known to make it 

 iiecessary to clesriil>e tlie external iorin of the seed. It 

 is not a bean at all, but the sehizocarp of a plant belong- 

 in*; to the Euphorhioi-eac. It is by no means confined to 

 S. Africa, but occurs jilso in N. America and S. Europe, 

 in fact it was known from Europe as early as the be- 

 ginning of the sixteenth century, but it does not seem 

 U) have attracted as much attention then as it has done 

 dnring the last years. In 1854 a "jumping bean", re 

 sembling in every respect the one found in South Africa, 

 was found in Mexico and well studied by the well-known 

 entomologist Lucas, whose observations are very con 

 elusive. It was only since 1896, however, w^hen these 

 " Ix^ans " weie impoi-ted from Mexico in such large juan- 

 tiries, that they became more known by the public that 

 bought them from mere curiosity. And no w^onderl The 

 jumping of these beans is a most weird spectacle. This 

 ]>eculiar movement in the seed is caused by the larva of 

 a moth. 



The Mexican ''beans'' develoj) a s;mall moth, thiit 

 belongs to the Tortricidae and is named by Westw. as 

 (^"nrpoecipsa saliiians. This genus has in Europe six 

 species, all of which live inside fruit, which they all 

 leave however before pupation, while the Mexican S3)ecies 

 impates also inside the fruit. 



The jumpino: beans from S<mth Africa also pui>ate 

 inside the "bean", at least the species known to me, 

 and the one I know from the Transvaal resembles in 

 many respects the ^NFexican jumping bean. 



The Transvaal "jumping bean'' is clearly the fruit of 

 a Euphorbiaceae, and comes from the Lvdenburg district 



