Social Life in the Insect World Part 20

The eggs are of a fairly bright amber yellow, cylindrical 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 alb.u.men. 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 uppermost 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; sometimes 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 the work of the new-born larva; a sub-epidermic tunnel along which the grub works its way, while seeking a point from which it can escape into a pea. This point once attained, the larva, which is scarcely a twenty-fifth of an inch in length, and is white with a black head, perforates the envelope and plunges into the capacious hollow of the pod.

It has reached the peas and crawls upon the nearest. I have observed it with the magnifier. Having explored the green globe, its new world, it begins to sink a well perpendicularly into the sphere. I have often seen it half-way in, wriggling its tail in the effort to work the quicker. In a short time the grub disappears and is at home. The point of entry, minute, but always easily recognisable by its brown coloration on the pale green background of the pea, has no fixed location; it may be at almost any point on the surface of the pea, but an exception is usually made of the lower half; that is, the hemisphere whose pole is formed by the supporting stem.

It is precisely in this portion that the germ is found, which will not be eaten by the larva, and will remain capable of developing into a plant, in spite of the large aperture made by the emergence of the adult insect. Why is this particular portion left untouched? What are the motives that safeguard the germ?

It goes without saying that the Bruchus is not considering the gardener.

The pea is meant for it and for no one else. In refusing the few bites that would lead to the death of the seed, it has no intention of limiting its destruction. It abstains from other motives.

Let us remark that the peas touch laterally, and are pressed one against the other, so that the grub, when searching for a point of attack, cannot circulate at will. Let us also note that the lower pole expands into the umbilical excrescence, which is less easy of perforation than those parts protected by the skin alone. It is even possible that the umbilic.u.m, whose organisation differs from that of the rest of the pea, contains a peculiar sap that is distasteful to the little grub.

Such, doubtless, is the reason why the peas exploited by the Bruchus are still able to germinate. They are damaged, but not dead, because the invasion was conducted from the free hemisphere, a portion less vulnerable and more easy of access. Moreover, as the pea in its entirety is too large for a single grub to consume, the consumption is limited to the portion preferred by the consumer, and this portion is not the essential portion of the pea.

With other conditions, with very much smaller or very much larger seeds, we shall observe very different results. 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 succ.u.mb 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-gla.s.s 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. And the others? We shall see.

At the end of May, and in June, the period of egg-laying, let us inspect the still green and tender peas. Nearly all the peas invaded show us the multiple perforations already observed on the dry peas abandoned by the weevils. Does this actually mean that there are several grubs in the pea? Yes. Skin the peas in question, separate the cotyledons, and break them up as may be necessary. We shall discover several grubs, extremely youthful, curled up comma-wise, fat and lively, each in a little round niche in the body of the pea.

Peace and welfare seem to reign in the little community. There is no quarrelling, no jealousy between neighbours. The feast has commenced; food is abundant, and the feasters are separated one from another by the walls of uneaten substance. With this isolation in separate cells no conflicts need be feared; no sudden bite of the mandibles, whether intentional or accidental. All the occupants enjoy the same rights of property, the same appet.i.te, and the same strength. How does this communal feast terminate?

Having first opened them, I place a number of peas which are found to be well peopled in a gla.s.s test-tube. I open others daily. In this way I keep myself informed as to the progress of the various larvae. At first nothing noteworthy is to be seen. Isolated in its narrow chamber, each grub nibbles the substance around it, peacefully and parsimoniously. It is still very small; a mere speck of food is a feast; but the contents of one pea will not suffice the whole number to the end. Famine is ahead, and all but one must perish.

Soon, indeed, the aspect of things is entirely changed. One of the grubs--that which occupies the central position in the pea--begins to grow more quickly than the others. Scarcely has it surpa.s.sed the others in size when the latter cease to eat, and no longer attempt to burrow forwards. They lie motionless and resigned; they die that gentle death which comes to unconscious lives. Henceforth the entire pea belongs to the sole survivor. Now what has happened that these lives around the privileged one should be thus annihilated? In default of a satisfactory reply, I will propose a suggestion.

In the centre of the pea, less ripened than the rest of the seed by the chemistry of the sun, may there not be a softer pulp, of a quality better adapted to the infantile digestion of the grub? There, perhaps, being nourished by tenderer, sweeter, and perhaps more tasty tissues, the stomach becomes more vigorous, until it is fit to 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 s.p.a.ce--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 s.p.a.cious 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 discomfort. Hence the necessity of an inevitable decimation, which will suppress all the compet.i.tors save one.

Now the superior volume of the broad bean, which is almost as much beloved by the weevil as the pea, can lodge a considerable community, and the solitary can live as a cen.o.bite. Without encroaching on the domain of their neighbours, five or six or more can find room in the one bean.

Moreover, each grub can find its infant diet; that is, that layer which, remote from the surface, hardens only gradually and remains full of sap until a comparatively late period. This inner layer represents the crumb of a loaf, the rest of the bean being the crust.

In the pea, a sphere of much less capacity, it occupies the central portion; a limited point at which the grub develops, and lacking which it perishes; but in the bean it lines the wide adjoining faces of the two flattened cotyledons. No matter where the point of attack is made, the grub has only to bore straight down when it quickly reaches the softer tissues. What is the result? I have counted the eggs adhering to a bean-pod and the beans included in the pod, and comparing the two figures I find that there is plenty of room for the whole family at the rate of five or six dwellers in each bean. No superfluous larvae perish of hunger when barely issued from the egg; all have their share of the ample provision; all live and prosper. The abundance of food balances the prodigal fertility of the mother.

If the Bruchus were always to adopt the broad bean for the establishment of her family I could well understand the exuberant allowance of eggs to one pod; a rich food-stuff easily obtained evokes a large batch of eggs. But the case of the pea perplexes me. By what aberration does the mother abandon her children to starvation on this totally insufficient vegetable? Why so many grubs to each pea when one pea is sufficient only for one grub?

Matters are not so arranged in the general balance-sheet of life. A certain foresight seems to rule over the ovary so that the number of mouths is in proportion to the abundance or scarcity of the food consumed. The Scarabaeus, the Sphex, the Necrophorus, and other insects which prepare and preserve alimentary provision for their families, are all of a narrowly limited fertility, because the b.a.l.l.s of dung, the dead or paralysed insects, or the buried corpses of animals on which their offspring are nourished are provided only at the cost of laborious efforts.

The ordinary bluebottle, on the contrary, which lays her eggs upon butcher's meat or carrion, lays them in enormous batches. Trusting in the inexhaustible riches represented by the corpse, she is prodigal of offspring, and takes no account of numbers. In other cases the provision is acquired by audacious brigandage, which exposes the newly born offspring to a thousand mortal accidents. In such cases the mother balances the chances of destruction by an exaggerated flux of eggs. Such is the case with the Meloides, which, stealing the goods of others under conditions of the greatest peril, are accordingly endowed with a prodigious fertility.

The Bruchus knows neither the fatigues of the laborious, obliged to limit the size of her family, nor the misfortunes of the parasite, obliged to produce an exaggerated number of offspring. Without painful search, entirely at her ease, merely moving in the suns.h.i.+ne over her favourite plant, she can ensure a sufficient provision for each of her offspring; she can do so, yet is foolish enough to over-populate the pod of the pea; a nursery insufficiently provided, in which the great majority will perish of starvation. This inept.i.tude is a thing I cannot understand: it clashes too completely with the habitual foresight of the maternal instinct.

I am inclined to believe that the pea is not the original food plant of the Bruchus. The original plant must rather have been the bean, one seed of which is capable of supporting half a dozen or more larvae. With the larger cotyledon the crying disproportion between the number of eggs and the available provision disappears.

Moreover, it is indubitable that the bean is of earlier date than the pea. Its exceptional size and its agreeable flavour would certainly have attracted the attention of man from the remotest periods. The bean is a ready-made mouthful, and would be of the greatest value to the hungry tribe. Primitive man would at an early date have sown it beside his wattled hut. Coming from Central Asia by long stages, their wagons drawn by s.h.a.ggy oxen and rolling on the circular discs cut from the trunks of trees, the early immigrants would have brought to our virgin land, first the bean, then the pea, and finally the cereal, that best of safeguards against famine. They taught us the care of herds, and the use of bronze, the material of the first metal implement. Thus the dawn of civilisation arose over France. With the bean did those ancient teachers also involuntarily bring us the insect which to-day disputes it with us? It is doubtful; the Bruchidae seem to be indigenous. At all events, I find them levying tribute from various indigenous plants, wild vegetables which have never tempted the appet.i.te of man. They abound in particular upon the great forest vetch (_Lathyrus latifolius_), with its magnificent heads of flowers and long handsome pods. The seeds are not large, being indeed smaller than the garden pea; but eaten to the very skin, as they invariably are, each is sufficient to the needs of its grub.

We must not fail to note their number. I have counted more than twenty in a single pod, a number unknown in the case of the pea, even in the most prolific varieties. Consequently this superb vetch is in general able to nourish without much loss the family confided to its pod.

Where the forest vetch is lacking, the Bruchus, none the less, bestows its habitual prodigality of eggs upon another vegetable of similar flavour, but incapable of nouris.h.i.+ng all the grubs: for the example, the travelling vetch (_Vicia peregrina_) or the cultivated vetch (_Vicia sativa_). The number of eggs remains high even upon insufficient pods, because the original food-plant offered a copious provision, both in the multiplicity and the size of the seeds. If the Bruchus is really a stranger, let us regard the bean as the original food-plant; if indigenous, the large vetch.

Sometime in the remote past we received the pea, growing it at first in the prehistoric vegetable garden which already supplied the bean. It was found a better article of diet than the broad bean, which to-day, after such good service, is comparatively neglected. The weevil was of the same opinion as man, and without entirely forgetting the bean and the vetch it established the greater part of its tribe upon the pea, which from century to century was more widely cultivated. To-day we have to share our peas: the Bruchidae take what they need, and bestow their leavings on us.

This prosperity of the insect which is the offspring of the abundance and quality of our garden products is from another point of view equivalent to decadence. For the weevil, as for ourselves, progress in matters of food and drink is not always beneficial. The race would profit better if it remained frugal. On the bean and the vetch the Bruchus founded colonies in which the infant mortality was low. There was room for all. On the pea-vine, delicious though its fruits may be, the greater part of its offspring die of starvation. The rations are few, and the hungry mouths are mult.i.tudinous.

We will linger over this problem no longer. Let us observe the grub which has now become the sole tenant of the pea by the death of its brothers. It has had no part in their death; chance has favoured it, that is all. In the centre of the pea, a wealthy solitude, it performs the duty of a grub; the sole duty of eating. It nibbles the walls enclosing it, enlarging its lodgment, which is always entirely filled by its corpulent body. It is well shaped, fat, and s.h.i.+ning with health. If I disturb it, it turns gently in its niche and sways its head. This is its manner of complaining of my importunities. Let us leave it in peace.

It profits so greatly and so swiftly by its position that by the time the dog-days have come it is already preparing for its approaching liberation. The adult is not sufficiently well equipped to open for itself a way out through the pea, which is now completely hardened. The larva knows of this future helplessness, and with consummate art provides for its release. With its powerful mandibles it bores a channel of exit, exactly round, with extremely clean-cut sides. The most skilful ivory-carver could do no better.

To prepare the door of exit in advance is not enough; the grub must also provide for the tranquillity essential to the delicate processes of nymphosis. An intruder might enter by the open door and injure the helpless nymph. This pa.s.sage must therefore remain closed. But how?

As the grub bores the pa.s.sage of exit it consumes the farinaceous matter without leaving a crumb. Having come to the skin of the pea it stops short. This membrane, semi-translucid, is the door to the chamber of metamorphosis, its protection against the evil intentions of external creatures.

It is also the only obstacle which the adult will encounter at the moment of exit. To lessen the difficulty of opening it the grub takes the precaution of gnawing at the inner side of the skin, all round the circ.u.mference, so as to make a line of least resistance. The perfect insect will only have to heave with its shoulder and strike a few blows with its head in order to raise the circular door and knock it off like the lid of a box. The pa.s.sage of exit shows through the diaphanous skin of the pea as a large circular spot, which is darkened by the obscurity of the interior. What pa.s.ses behind it is invisible, hidden as it is behind a sort of ground gla.s.s window.

A pretty invention, this little closed porthole, this barricade against the invader, this trap-door raised by a push when the time has come for the hermit to enter the world. Shall we credit it to the Bruchus? Did the ingenious insect conceive the undertaking? Did it think out a plan and work out a scheme of its own devising? This would be no small triumph for the brain of a weevil. Before coming to a conclusion let us try an experiment.

I deprive certain occupied peas of their skin, and I dry them with abnormal rapidity, placing them in gla.s.s test-tubes. The grubs prosper as well as in the intact peas. At the proper time the preparations for emergence are made.

If the grub acts on its own inspiration, if it ceases to prolong its boring directly it recognises that the outer coating, auscultated from time to time, is sufficiently thin, what will it do under the conditions of the present test? Feeling itself at the requisite distance from the surface it will stop boring; it will respect the outer layer of the bare pea, and will thus obtain the indispensable protecting screen.

Nothing of the kind occurs. In every case the pa.s.sage is completely excavated; the entrance gapes wide open, as large and as carefully executed as though the skin of the pea were in its place. Reasons of security have failed to modify the usual method of work. This open lodging has no defence against the enemy; but the grub exhibits no anxiety on this score.

Neither is it thinking of the outer enemy when it bores down to the skin when the pea is intact, and then stops short. It suddenly stops because the innutritious skin is not to its taste. We ourselves remove the parchment-like skins from a mess of pease-pudding, as from a culinary point of view they are so much waste matter. The larva of the Bruchus, like ourselves, dislikes the skin of the pea. It stops short at the h.o.r.n.y covering, simply because it is checked by an uneatable substance.

From this aversion a little miracle arises; but the insect has no sense of logic; it is pa.s.sively obedient to the superior logic of facts. It obeys its instinct, as unconscious of its act as is a crystal when it a.s.sembles, in exquisite order, its battalions of atoms.

Sooner or later during the month of August we see a shadowy circle form on each inhabited pea; but only one on each seed. These circles of shadow mark the doors of exit. Most of them open in September. The lid, as though cut out with a punch, detaches itself cleanly and falls to the ground, leaving the orifice free. The Bruchus emerges, freshly clad, in its final form.

The weather is delightful. Flowers are abundant, awakened by the summer showers; and the weevils visit them in the lovely autumn weather. Then, when the cold sets in, they take up their winter quarters in any suitable retreat. Others, still numerous, are less hasty in quitting the native seed. They remain within during the whole winter, sheltered behind the trap-door, which they take care not to touch. The door of the cell will not open on its hinges, or, to be exact, will not yield along the line of least resistance, until the warm days return. Then the late arrivals will leave their shelter and rejoin the more impatient, and both will be ready for work when the pea-vines are in flower.

To take a general view of the instincts in their inexhaustible variety is, for the observer, the great attraction of the entomological world; for nowhere do we gain a clearer sight of the wonderful way in which the processes of life are ordered. Thus regarded entomology is not, I know, to the taste of everybody; the simple creature absorbed in the doings and habits of insects is held in low esteem. To the terrible utilitarian, a bushel of peas preserved from the weevil is of more importance than a volume of observations which bring no immediate profit.

Yet who has told you, O man of little faith, that what is useless to-day will not be useful to-morrow? If we learn the customs of insects or animals we shall understand better how to protect our goods. Do not despise disinterested knowledge, or you may rue the day. It is by the acc.u.mulation of ideas, whether immediately applicable or otherwise, that humanity has done, and will continue to do, better to-day than yesterday, and better to-morrow than to-day. If we live on peas and beans, which we dispute with the weevil, we also live by knowledge, that mighty kneading-trough in which the bread of progress is mixed and leavened. Knowledge is well worth a few beans.

Among other things, knowledge tells us: "The seedsman need not go to the expense of waging war upon the weevil. When the peas arrive in the granary, the harm is already done; it is irreparable, but not transmissible. The untouched peas have nothing to fear from the neighbourhood of those which have been attacked, however long the mixture is left. From the latter the weevils will issue when their time has come; they will fly away from the storehouse if escape is possible; if not, they will perish without in any way attacking the sound peas. No eggs, no new generation will ever be seen upon or within the dried peas in the storehouse; there the adult weevil can work no further mischief."