If too small, the germ will perish, gnawed like the rest by the insufficiently provisioned inmate; if too large, the abundance of food will permit of several inmates.
Exploited in the absence of the pea, the cultivated vetch and the broad bean afford us an excellent example; the smaller seed, of which all but the skin is devoured, is left incapable of germination; but the large bean, even though it may have held a number of grubs, is still capable of sprouting.
Knowing that the pod always exhibits a number of eggs greatly in excess of the enclosed peas, and that each pea is the exclusive property of one grub, we naturally ask what becomes of the superfluous grubs.

Do they perish outside when the more precocious have one by one taken their places in their vegetable larder?
or do they succumb to the intolerant teeth of the first occupants?
Neither explanation is correct.

Let us relate the facts.
On all old peas--they are at this stage dry--from which the adult Bruchus has emerged, leaving a large round hole of exit, the magnifying-glass will show a variable number of fine reddish punctuations, perforated in the centre.

What are these spots, of which I count five, six, and even more on a single pea?
It is impossible to be mistaken: they are the points of entry of as many grubs.

Several grubs have entered the pea, but of the whole group only one has survived, fattened, and attained the adult age.