NOTES AND QUERIES. 441 
wall,-and waited a second or two; then most resolutely he ran to her again 
without any precaution at all, grasped her with his fore feet, and appeared 
to press both palpal organs upon the region of her genital aperture. They 
remained motionless in this position fully half a minute. He then with- 
drew very slowly indeed towards the wall, and there suspended himself by 
a single line of about three inches. He seemed to be dying, and I thouglit 
she had bitten him. However, in five minutes he revived, and went off to 
the niche in the wall whence he had first come. She meanwhile awoke, 
and returned to her usual place in the centre of her web. I hope to record 
the date when the eggs thus fecundated are deposited. In the same con- 
nection, I may mention that in another part of my little garden I have just 
seen two males captured and devoured by females of this species; but in 
neither instance did it seem to me that the male thus caught was on 
amorous purpose bent. Once certainly he had dropped from above into 
the web accidentally, and he was unable to extricate himself before he was 
attacked and swathed in silk.—Hunry W. Freston (Manchester). 
IAN eh CA. 
Jumping Beans.—I do not know whether your pages are open to dis- 
cussion, but if they should be, I should like to invite an explanation as to 
the method by which a perfect insect, imprisoned under certain conditions 
as a pupa, liberates itself on emerging from that state. At the World’s 
Fair at Chicago, and subsequently last summer at Harl’s Court, certain 
seeds of a Mexican EKuphorbiaceous plant were sold under the designation 
of “ Jumping Beans.” These seeds, if placed in a warm hand, or sub- 
jected to sunshine or a higher temperature, would move, or jump with 
short jerks, and by some people who knew nothing of their nature were 
considered ‘ wonders’ and “ uncanny.” They were sold at a considerable 
price at Chicago, and at a fair and reasonable price at Harl’s Court. Of 
course the solution was evident to anyone who knew anything about lepi- 
dopterous larve, namely, that they enclosed some internal feeding larva. I 
procured a few for observation in June, 1857; and in September, 1858, 
three Tortrix moths (Carpocapsa, I believe) emerged. ‘The problem I want 
to solve is, how do these imago forms find their exit from the extremely 
hard and tough walls of the seed in which they have been enclosed, so 
tough and hard that it requires a very sharp knife to cut through them? 
The aperture through which the small moth escapes is a perfect cylindrical 
hole, as true as if bored by an instrument. In two of the cases in which 
the perfect insect came forth I found the empty pupa-case lying clear of the 
seed capsule. In a third case the pupa protruded about half its length 
through the aperture, and was dead, apparently wanting strength to effect 
its exit, Now how is this circular aperture, by which the. moth escapes, 
