Miscellaneous. 141 
actually move by jerks and jumps, and will, when very active, jump 
at least a line from any object they may be resting on. The actual 
jumping-power has been doubted by some writers; but I have often 
witnessed it. To the uninitiated these movements of a hard seed 
seem little less than miraculous. They are induced by a plump, 
whitish, lepidopterous larva which occupies about one fifth of the 
interior, the occupied seed being, in fact, but a hollow shell, with 
an inner lining of silk which the larva has spun. The larva looks 
very much like the common apple-worm (Carpocapsa pomonella), 
and belongs, in fact, to the same genus. It resembles it further in 
remaining for a long time in the full-grown larva state before trans- 
forming, so that the seeds will keep up their motion throughout 
most of the winter months. When about to transform, which is 
usually in the months of January and February, it cuts a neat cir- 
cular door in the convex side of its house, strengthens the same 
with silk, spins a loose tube of silk within the seed, and therein 
transforms to the pupa state. The moth soon afterwards pushes its 
way out from the little door prepared for it. 
The moth was first described in 1857 as Carpocapsa saltitans by 
Prof. J. O. Westwood*, and afterward as Carpocapsa Dehaisiana by 
Mons. H. Lucas. 
In regard to the plant on which these seeds occur there is much 
yet to learn; and I quote what Mr. G. W. Barnes, president of the 
San Diego Society of Natural History, wrote me in 1874 concern- 
ing it, in the hope that some of the botanists present may recog- 
nize it :— 
“¢ ARRowW-WEED (Yerba de flecha).—This is the name the shrub 
bears that produces the triangular seeds that during six or eight 
months have a continual jumping movement. The shrub is small, 
from 4 to 6 feet in height, branchy, and in the month of June and 
July yields the seeds, a pod containing three to five seeds. These 
seeds have each a little worm inside. The leaf of the plant is very 
similar to that of the garambullo, the only difference being in the 
size, this being a little larger. It is half an inch in length and a 
quarter of an inch in width, a little more or less. The bark of the 
shrub is ash-coloured ; and the leaf is perfectly green during all the 
seasons. By merely stirring coffee, or any drink, with a small 
branch of it, it acts as an active cathartic. Taken in large doses it 
is an active poison, speedily causing death unless counteracted by 
an antidote.” 
In a recent letter he states that he is informed that the region 
of Mamos, in Sonora, is the only place where the plant grows ; that 
the tree is about 4 feet high, and is a species of laurel, with the 
* Proc. Ashmolean Soe. of Oxford, 1857, t. iii. pp. 1387, 138; see also 
Trans. Lond. Ent. Soc. ser. 2, 1858, t. iv. p. 27, and Gard. Chron. 1859, 
Noy. 12, p. 909. 
+ “Note sur les grains d’une Euphorbiacée de Mexique sautant au 
dessus du sol par les vibrations d’une larve de l’ordre des lépidoptéres 
vivant en dedans,” Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, sér. 3, t. vi. Bull. pp. 10, 
33, 41, 44 (1859), t. vii. pp. 561-566, 
