310 THE SO-CALLED JUMPING BEAN OF MEXICO. 



and the third a small worm, which when full grown measures 

 about ten or twelve millimetres in length. " The most surprising 

 thing- about it is that there is no hole in the outer covering, as 

 there is in the apple or pear, to indicate the way the worm entered 

 the shell." 



The above extracts are from a paper furnished to the pur- 

 chaser of the nut, printed, no doubt, with a view of promoting 

 the sale of this " jumping bean," but which, on the whole, may be 

 said to be purely mythical. In the first place, " the worm ' is no 

 worm at all, but simply a maggot of an ordinary type, belonging 

 to the very destructive weevil family. The egg is introduced into 

 the interior of the nut at an early period of growth, and when its 

 outer coat is soft and yielding to the needle-like ovipositor of the 

 female weevil. The finest nut of a cluster is invariably and 

 instinctively selected for the purpose. This she proceeds to pene- 

 trate with a microscopical instrument that enables her to bore a 

 hole, which shall, for the time being, not only elude the human 

 eye, but also the keener eye of her many feathered enemies. 

 Moreover, guided by this unerring instinct, she selects a spot which 

 shall avoid injury to the living germ, and thus put a stoj; to the 

 secretion of the milky pulp of the kernel of the nut, as upon this 

 hangs the hatching of the egg, and the future life and growth of 

 the larva throughout its stage of existence — a naturally short one 

 of about eight or ten days only. Early in March an opening was 

 made in one of the nuts ; it was then found to contain a fully 

 developed yellowish maggot, curled up and feigning death. On 

 removing the larva from the nut for closer examination, its darker 

 brown horny — (chitinous) — head was seen to be furnished with a 

 rostrum, two mandibles, rudimentary antennae, and eyes ; the two 

 upper segments of the soft body were provided with two pairs of 

 jointed retractile legs terminating in sharp pointed hooks ; the 

 lower segments of the body on either side having five pairs of 

 inconspicuous pro-legs and breathing apertures. In short, the 

 Mexican nut-maggot, in its formation, closely resembles its English 

 congener, save in one particular — that of its curious jactitating 

 movements on being disturbed, and which were the means of 

 attracting so much attention to the insect. This, however, can be 

 very satisfactorily explained ; at all events, it is no longer capable 



