Jumping bean

Jumping beans originate from Mexico. They are not beans but seeds of a shrub that have had an moth's egg laid inside. The egg hatches and the larvae hollows out the seed. The larvae wriggle inside the seed and cause it to move.

Under certain conditions the larvae can live inside the seed for several years before pupating and emerging through a hole it makes in the seed. The jumping bean moths belong to the genus Cydia.

A photograph of pupae and adults of the Jumping bean moth (Cydia deshaisiana) and the seeds in which the larvae develop.
Photograph by NobbiP licensed under Creative Commons.

Other names for (or types of) Jumping bean include:

• Brincador

Related pages on this web site

• Butterflies and Moths - Order Lepidoptera

See other words beginning with J