THE PEA- WEEVIL 265 



for each pea ; I have found ten, and there is no reason 

 why this prodigality should not go still further. Many 

 are called, but few are chosen ! What is to become of 

 all these supernumeraries, perforce excluded from the 

 banquet for want of space ? 



The eggs are of a fairly bright amber yellow, cylin- 

 drical in form, smooth, and rounded at the ends. Their 

 length is at most a twenty-fifth 'of an inch. Each is 

 affixed to the pod by means of a slight network of 

 threads of coagulated albumen. Neither wind nor rain 

 can loosen their hold. 



The mother not infrequently emits them two at a time, 

 one above the other ; not infrequently, also, the upper- 

 most of the two eggs hatches before the other, while the 

 latter fades and perishes. What was lacking to this egg, 

 that it should fail to produce a grub ? Perhaps a bath of 

 sunlight ; the incubating heat of which the outer egg has 

 robbed it. Whether on account of the fact that it is 

 shadowed by the other egg, or for other reasons, the 

 elder of the eggs in a group of two rarely follows the 

 normal course, but perishes on the pod, dead without 

 having lived. 



There are exceptions to this premature end ; some- 

 times the two eggs develop equally well ; but such cases 

 are exceptional, so that the Bruchid family would be 

 reduced to about half its dimensions if the binary 

 system were the rule. To the detriment of our peas and 

 to the advantage of the beetle, the eggs are commonly 

 laid one by one and in isolation. 



A recent emergence is shown by a little sinuous ribbon- 

 like mark, pale or whitish, where the skin of the pod is 

 raised and withered, which starts from the egg and is 



