264 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



A hasty touch of the oviduct, first here, then there, on 

 the green skin of the pea-pod, and that is all. The egg is 

 left there, unprotected, in the full sunlight. No choice 

 of position is made such as might assist the grub when it 

 seeks to penetrate its larder. Some eggs are laid on the 

 swellings created by the peas beneath ; others in the 

 barren valleys which separate them. The first are close 

 to the peas, the second at some distance from them. 

 In short, the eggs of the Bruchus are laid at random, as 

 though on the wing. 



We observe a still more serious vice : the number of 

 eggs is out of all proportion to the number of peas in the 

 pod. Let us note at the outset that each grub requires 

 one pea ; it is the necessary ration, and is largely sufficient 

 to one larva, but is not enough for several, nor even for 

 two. One pea to each grub, neither more nor less, is the 

 unchangeable rule. 



We should expect to find signs of a procreative 

 economy which would impel the female to take into 

 account the number of peas contained in the pod which 

 she has just explored ; we might expect her to set a 

 numerical limit on her eggs in conformity with that of 

 the peas available. But no such limit is observed. The 

 rule of one pea to one grub is always contradicted by the 

 multiplicity of consumers. 



My observations are unanimous on this point. The 

 number of eggs deposited on one pod always exceeds 

 the number of peas available, and often to a scandalous 

 degree. However meagre the contents of the pod there 

 is a superabundance of consumers. Dividing the sum 

 of the eggs upon such or such a pod by that of the peas 

 contained therein, I find there are five to eight claimants 



