What makes magic jumping beans jump

Why Do Jumping Beans Jump? Will U. Border Patrol Confiscate Jumping Beans? An assortment of Mexican jumping beans. They are actually the separate sections carpels of seed capsules from the Mexican shrub Sebastiana pavoniana. Showy red clumps of Mexican jumping bean shrubs Sebastiana pavoniana and stately fan palms Brahea brandegeei line a canyon bottom of Sierra de la Laguna in the rugged Cape region of Baja California. During June the ground beneath large jumping bean shrubs is littered with coppery-red leaves and hundreds thousands of larva-bearing carpels.

The jumping carpels sound like the patter of rain drops on dry leaves. Apparently the same species of moth larva inhabits seed-bearing carpels; however, the carpels do not separate into sections as in the true Mexican jumping bean S. Note: According to American Insects by R.

Arnett , the jumping bean moth belongs to the Order Lepidoptera, Family Tortricidae, and is listed under the scientific name of Cydia saltitans. It is listed as Cydia deshaisiana in Volume 3 of Nomina Insecta Nearctica and more recent publications in entomology. The scientific name Laspeyresia saltitans is a synonym used in most older entomology references.

This moth species inhabits the carpels of Sebastiana pavoniana and apparently also Sapium biloculare Sebastiana bilocularis.

Shiny green leaves of a Mexican jumping bean shrub Sebastiana pavoniana with mature seed capsule and 3 moth-bearing sections carpels. This illuminating Deep Look episode peers inside the seeds of Sebastiania pavoniana shrubs found in the Sonoran Desert. There, tiny moth larvae might be found. They are stowaways who have burrowed into the seeds for food and shelter while they transform into moths. These are frijoles saltarines or Mexican jumping beans. After the moth-laid egg on the plant hatches, the larva eats away the inside of the bean until it becomes hollow and attaches itself to the inside of the bean with silk-like thread.

The larva may live for months inside the bean with varying periods of dormancy. If the larva has adequate conditions of moisture and temperature, it will live long enough to go into a pupal stage. What if you spent most of your life in near darkness, surrounded by the same walls, eating the same food, all alone?

But they're not something you'd want to eat. It primarily grows in Mexico, in the mountains of the Sonoran Desert. There are three of them that make up this fruit.

Some of these sections have a stow-away — a tiny moth larva that burrowed into the seed while it was still on the plant. The larva devours the inside of the seed, hollowing out its new pad to make room for its growing body. Over the next months our squirmy friend lines the walls with a comfy layer of silk.

Just enough air and moisture sneak in through tiny holes in the seed walls. Except for the sweltering desert sun. That heat can dry out and kill our sweet little larva. The next question should be, "Do Mexican jumping beans have the near-human mental capacity of the beans that help Speedy Gonzalez? Are they able to jump the length of a room, trip adversaries Mexican jumping beans are about the size of a kernel of corn or a small bean.

They do not wear sombreros. They do not jump into the air. They rock, or, on occasion, scoot a millimeter or two. Imagine a kernel of corn that scoots a millimeter in one direction every 15 seconds or so -- that's about as exciting as jumping beans get.

The thing that makes these beans jump is a tiny moth larvae that lives inside the bean.