The characteristics of feeding lesions and the relationship between cocoa pod size/age and surface area were determined as a basis for examining in detail the effects of pod age on feeding and oviposition by Helopeltis theivora Waterhouse. In no-choice and choice experiments in the field, adults made few feeding lesions on the youngest cherelles and, given a choice, made many fewer on full size, ripe yellowing pods than on old cherelles and growing pods. Old cherelles and growing pods were equally attractive based on numbers of feeding lesions per cherelle or pod, but in terms of available surface area for feeding there were more on the cherelles. These distinctions in feeding choice are even more striking for oviposition, with no eggs laid on young cherelles and old pods, and old cherelles/young pods strongly preferred on a per cherelle or pod basis, and especially per unit area of surface. It is suggested that the female chooses to oviposit on relatively old cherelles and young pods because its nymphs may benefit by feeding during a nutritious growing phase of pod development. It is also significant that eggs are rarely laid on ripe pods on which newly hatched nymphs cannot survive, nor are they laid on young cherelles, most of which, unlike the oldest, will die from cherelle wilt. The female lays a large proportion of eggs within, or very close to, feeding lesions, including those made earlier by males. Yet, this does not benefit egg viability. Males did not make feeding lesions on previously laid eggs.