''Emporia melanobasis'' is a species of

snout moth The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyralida ...

in the genus '' Emporia''. It was described by

Boris Balinsky Borys Ivanovych Balinsky (23 September 1905 – 1 September 1997) was a Ukrainian and South African biologist, embryologist, entomologist, professor of Kyiv University and University of the Witwatersrand. Pioneer researcher in the field of e ...

in 1991, and is known from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Jumping beans

The larvae pupate inside fruit of ''

Spirostachys africana ''Spirostachys africana'' is a medium-sized (about tall) deciduous tree with a straight, clear trunk, occurring in the warmer parts of Southern Africa. Its wood is known as tamboti, tambotie, tambootie or tambuti. It prefers growing in single-s ...

''. 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 Mexican jumping beans (also known as ' in Spanish) are seed pods that have been inhabited by the larva of a small moth (''Cydia saltitans'') and are native to Mexico. The "bean" is usually tan to brown. They are from the shrub '' Sebastiania pa ...

, ''

Sebastiania ''Sebastiania'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae first described in 1821. It is native to North and South America from Arizona and the West Indies south to Uruguay.Webster, G. L. & M.J. Huft. 1988. Revised synopsis of Pa ...

'' sp., which also belong to the Euphorbia family. This bean is parasitised by the moth ''

Cydia saltitans ''Cydia saltitans'' or jumping bean moth is a moth from Mexico that is most widely known as its larva, where it inhabits the carpels of seeds from several related shrubby trees, mainly '' Sebastiania pavoniana'' or '' Sapium biloculare'' ( syn ...

''.

References

Endemic moths of South Africa Moths described in 1991 Phycitinae {{Phycitinae-stub