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The seed parasite Callosobruchus maculatus generally disperses eggs uniformly among seeds. We used cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) of two class sizes (large and small) to test predictions based on a simple resource threshold model that females will distribute eggs among seeds in a manner that maximizes the amount of resources allocated to each offspring. When females were presented with multiple seeds of the same size, they tended to distribute their eggs relatively uniformly among seeds (I⩽0.27 where I is the variance/mean ratio, and I=1 reflects a random Poisson distribution). However, when seeds varied in size females distributed their eggs in a manner that maximized the amount of resources per offspring; females distributed eggs as predicted by seed differences in mass rather than as predicted by seed differences in surface area. Therefore, females must evaluate the relative quantity of resources …