REVISION MALACOSOMA HUBNER IN NORTH AMERICA 287 



and there can be no doubt that he had c. constrictum larvae before him. 

 Stretch did not pubHsh his description of c. constrictum until 1881, so 

 the name should be credited to Henry Edwards. Edwards did not 

 designate a type, gave no locality, and obviously knew that Stretch 

 had a name in mind for this species or he could not have used "Clisio- 

 campa constricta Stretch n. sp." for the immatures which he described. 

 It seems evident that he intended only to supplement Stretch's descrip- 

 tion by describing the immature stages, since he had an adult which 

 he could have described. (He notes: "Larva May 22d, changed to 

 chrysalis, May 29th. Imago, June 16th.") Nevertheless, he was the 

 first person to name and describe c. constrictum, so the citation must 

 be changed to M. constrictum constrictum (Henry Edwards). 



There is no type(s) since Edwards noted that his larva changed to a 

 chrysalis and then to an adult, and he did not describe the adult. 

 Actually, the existence of an authentic type for c. constrictum is not 

 necessary to identify the species, since the descriptions by both Edwards 

 and Stretch are good enough to identify it with certainty. See below 

 for a discussion of Stretch's Malacosoma types. 



The R. H. Stretch Malacosoma types 



Richard H. Stretch described five species of western Malacosoma 

 (fragilis, constricta, erosa, strigosa, and thoracica), but only Jragilis is 

 presently retained as a subspecies of M. californicum. The names erosa, 

 strigosa, and thoracica are synonyms and constricta must be credited to 

 Henry Edwards (see above). 



In all the original descriptions except that of constricta Stretch indi- 

 cated that he obtained the specimens from Henry Edwards. In the 

 description of constricta he says, "Mr. H. Edwards has raised the species 

 frequently," so Stretch may have obtained these specimens from 

 Edwards, too. 



Apparently, Stretch did not designate any types of Malacosoma. It 

 seems most probable that Stretch used Henry Edwards' specimens in 

 describing all of his species of Malacosoma, and then returned them to 

 Edwards without labeling them. Edwards then placed them in his 

 collection after labeling them in various ways. In the Henry Edwards' 

 collection in the American Museum of Natural History there are 

 specimens of all five of Stretch's species which are supposed to be the 

 types. Only one of these (thoracica) bears a label with "type" written 

 on it, and this label is in Henry Edwards' handwriting. Two others 

 (erosa and fragilis) have determination labels in Henry Edwards' 

 handwriting. These two and the remaining two (constricta and strigosa) 

 all have labels designating them as lectotypes by McDunnough in 



