Note 156 — VII. THE DOUBTFUL.

Dr Boisduval, one hot evening in June, found caterpillars on grass which diffused a phosphorescent light; he thought them to be those of Mamestra oleracca—one of the most abundant of our moths—but they seemed larger than common; and whether owing to want of care in the rearing or to a condition of disease—which may, indeed, have been the cause of their luminosity—none of them attained the chrysalis state, and so the species was not absolutely decided.