Emporia melanobasis is a species of snout moth in the genus Emporia. It was described by Boris Balinsky in 1991, and is known from South Africa.
| Emporia melanobasis | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Pyralidae |
| Genus: | Emporia |
| Species: | E. melanobasis
|
| Binomial name | |
| Emporia melanobasis | |
Jumping beans
edit
The larvae pupate[2] inside fruit of Spirostachys africana. Larvae develop with the growing fruits which show no external damage. When the fruits are mature each splits into three cocci. The larvae jack-knife inside the fallen segments, causing them to move about erratically and vigorously, to the surprise of the uninitiated. This has led to the name "jumping bean tree". A similar phenomenon occurs with the Mexican jumping bean, Sebastiania sp., which also belong to the Euphorbia family. This bean is parasitised by the moth Cydia saltitans.
References
edit- ^ "GlobIZ search". Global Information System on Pyraloidea. Retrieved 2011-09-29.
- ^ Janse, A. T. (March 1920). "The jumping bean — Emporia melanobasis, Hmpsn". South African Journal of Natural History. 2 (1): 121–124.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
 | This Phycitinae-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |