288 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 27G 



1942, but these designations apparently Vv^ere never published so they 

 are not valid. Nevertheless, McDunnough chose specimens which 

 Stretch probably had before him when he made the original descrip- 

 tions, so the same specimens have been designated as lectotypes here. 



All of the data in Henry Edwards' personal catalog of his collection 

 in the American Museum of Natural History for these specimens 

 are in agreement with the original descriptions with the exception 

 of the locality for thoracica. Stretch gives the locality as "Congress 

 Springs, San Mateo Co., California," but Edwards' catalog gives the 

 locality as "Congress Springs, Santa Clara Co., California." This is 

 probably an error on Stretch's part, since Congress Springs is actually 

 in Santa Clara Co., although close to the San Mateo Co. line. 



Congress Springs is near the northern edge of the range of M. 

 californicum ambisimile. In the past thoracica has always been regarded 

 as a form of M. disstria because of superficial resemblance, but the 

 terminalia and epiphysis of the adult male type identify it as M. 

 californicum. The name thoracica Stretch, 1881, has priority over ambisimile 

 Dyar, 1893, but adult male calif ortiicum ambisimile cannot be separated 

 from adult male californicum californicum Packard, 1864, the other 

 subspecies which occurs near Congress Springs. M. californicum cali- 

 fornicum is known to occur less than 1 miles north of Congress Springs 

 and may occur even closer. Because of these uncertainties and to 

 avoid a senseless change in names from ambisimile to thoracica, thoracica 

 has been listed as a synonym of M. californicum californicum. 



