The Life of the Weevil 



could very well explain her exuberant 

 emission of germs on a single pod: a rich 

 supply of food, easily acquired, invites a 

 large colony. The pea, on the other hand, 

 puzzles me. What vagary makes the 

 mother abandon her offspring to starvation 

 on this insufficient legumen? Why so many 

 boarders gathered around a seed which forms 

 the ration of one alone? 



It is not thus that matters are arranged 

 in life's general balance-sheet. A certain 

 foresight rules the ovaries and makes them 

 adjust the number of eaters to the abundance 

 or scarcity of the thing eaten. The Sacred 

 Beetle, the Sphex-wasp, the Burying-beetle 

 and the other manufacturers of preserved 

 provisions for the family set close limits to 

 their fertility, because the soft loaves of 

 their baking, the baskets containing their 

 game and the contents of their sepulchral 

 retting-vat are all obtained at the cost of 

 laborious and often unproductive efforts. 



The Bluebottle, on the contrary, heaps her 

 eggs in bundles. Trusting in the inexhaust- 

 ible wealth of a corpse, she lavishes her 

 maggots without counting the number. At 

 other times, the provision is obtained by 

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