270 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



undertake less easily digested food. A nursling is fed on 

 milk before proceeding to bread and broth. May not 

 the central portion of the pea be the feeding-bottle of 

 the Bruchid ? 



With equal rights, fired by an equal ambition, all the 

 occupants of the pea bore their way towards the delicious 

 morsel. The journey is laborious, and the grubs must 

 rest frequently in their provisional niches. They rest ; 

 while resting they frugally gnaw the riper tissues 

 surrounding them ; they gnaw rather to open a way 

 than to fill their stomachs. 



Finally one of the excavators, favoured by the 

 direction taken, attains the central portion. It 

 establishes itself there, and all is over ; the others have 

 only to die. How are they warned that the place is 

 taken ? Do they hear their brother gnawing at the 

 walls of his lodging ? can they feel the vibration set 

 up by his nibbling mandibles ? Something of the 

 kind must happen, for from that moment they make no 

 attempt to burrow further. Without struggling against 

 the fortunate winner, without seeking to dislodge him, 

 those which are beaten in the race give themselves up 

 to death. I admire this candid resignation on the part 

 of the departed. 



Another condition — that of space — is also present as a 

 factor. The pea-weevil is the largest of our Bruchidae. 

 When it attains the adult stage it requires a certain 

 amplitude of lodging, which the other weevils do not 

 require in the same degree. A pea provides it with a 

 sufficiently spacious cell ; nevertheless, the cohabitation 

 of two in one pea would be impossible ; there would 

 be no room, even were the two to put up with a certain 



