INTRODUCTION cxxxvii 



bark ot foreign Hibiscus) which are certainly importations. Some doubt may attach to 

 the species of Ptiliodes, but two of these have only been found near Honolulu and the 

 other which is found beneath Koa bark in the high forests of Hawaii and elsewhere, 

 also occurs close to Honolulu. The other genera represented are Actidiuni, Ptinella 

 and Tric/iopteryx, each with a single species. 



Staphylinid.ae. — Of the tribe Piestini the genus Thoracophorus has two endemic 

 species, one common and variable, ubiquitous over the islands, beneath dead bark of 

 Straussia and sometimes on Bobea, the other apparently very rare and its habits not 

 known, except that it is also found beneath bark. T. blackburni is excessively sluggish 

 and often occurs in numbers together, in company with Antilissiis aper. The single 

 representatives of Lispiniis and Ancaais are both foreign, found in or near Honolulu, 

 and, no doubt, introduced by man. Lispinodes, an endemic genus, is evidently rich in 

 species, ten having been described by Dr Sharp, but individuals seem to be extremely 

 rare. We have always found these in company with Thoracophorus blackburni, or more 

 rarely with species of Diestota and Myllaena, but have only observed one example of 

 Lispinodes to scores or hundreds of individuals of the other genera, on an average. 

 They are always found beneath bark, generally where there is much moisture and 

 decay. 



The Oxytelini are probably unrepresented in the native fauna, unless one or other 

 of the species of Trogophloeiis prove to be endemic or naturally immigrant. From the 

 habits of the Hawaiian species I do not feel sure that these could have been imported 

 by man. On the other hand the four species of Oxytelus have certainly been imported. 



In the Paederini Lithocharis vilis and the two species of Medon are probably 

 importations, less probably natural immigrants, but the two Ophioinedon probably and 

 three Nesomedon certainly are endemic. N. brunnescens is found in wet boggy forests 

 under moss or bark and the others are true forest insects, probably of similar habits. 



Of the Staphylini the four Philonthi, Creophilus maxillosus, and Cafius nauticus 

 are foreign, whereas the three allied genera Leurocorynus, Xanthocorynus and 

 Holocorynus are endemic genera, together containing only four species, all of which 

 excepting the variable Leurocoiynus cephalotes appear to be rare insects. I fancy that 

 all are attached to the tree Cheirodendron, under the bark of which they live, sometimes 

 larvae and adults together. Leptacinus flavipennis is an imported insect, found by 

 Blackburn in Honolulu. Other Staphylinidae which prey on Dipterous larvae in cow- 

 dung, like some of the Philonthi above mentioned, have been introduced for economic 

 reasons, but it is not known whether these are established. 



The greater part of the Staphylinid fauna is found amongst the Aleocharini, 

 Myllaena with eleven species, Oligota with 28, Liophaena endemic and allied to the 

 preceding with three, Diestota with 29, and Eudiestota and Eiisipalia endemic and 

 allied to this, with one each. All, or almost all, these species are endemic and of great 



F. H. I. s 



