Staphylinidae 453 



The eggs were buried in some moist soil in a jar and hatched six days 

 later. The larvae were quick of motion and fed freely on the stale beef. 

 They rarely entered the soil, but could usually be found close together 

 under the dry leaves. Molting occurred twice before they entered the 

 soil to pupate. The adults emerged about the last of August. 



The young beetles ate very little at any time and during the winter 

 months took no food at all. They spent most of their time in the soil, 

 seldom being seen on top. About the last of March a piece of liver was 

 placed in the jar and a few hours later one of the beetles was found 

 clinging to it ; this was the first evidence of their eating anything since 

 November. 



M. E. D. 



Family staphylinidae 



j 



staphylinidae* 



DURING the summer a large number of rove beetles appeared in 

 decaying vegetable matter in which flies were being bred. Plants 

 of various kinds were ground up in a clover cutter and the material 

 placed in cake tins. To induce flies to lay their eggs on this pulpy mass, 

 it was baited with ground-up apple, hawthorn, grape, or cantaloup and 

 exposed to the air. The upper layers soon became black, although in 

 several cases the lower surfaces remained green indefinitely. Exposed 

 to the air and to changes of weather, some of the pans became wet and 

 soggy, while those that were sheltered remained comparatively dry. 

 Within a few days the mass was teeming with life. Dipterous larvae 

 of many kinds were most numerous, but Coleoptera of several families 

 were fairly abundant. Small Hydrophilidae were found in the wettest 

 of the pans; one or two of the Nitidulidae were frequently found in the 

 decaying fruit; but by far the commonest beetles were the Staphylinidae. 

 The first beetles were taken July 2 and others were collected at in- 

 tervals of a few days until the latter part of August. Pans of vegetable 

 substance in which they were found ranged from nine days to two months 

 old. The amount of decomposition in the plant material appeared to 

 make no difference in the number of beetles, but the amount of moisture 

 was of the greatest importance. The kind of plant used had some effect 

 on the appearance of the beetles, although that may have been mainly a 

 question of moisture also. The largest numbers were found in a com- 

 bination of alder and touch-me-not, and in sweet clover. Where rain 

 had fallen into the pans until they had become a wet, slimy mass, few 



♦Abstracted from an article in Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer. 16:220, 1923, by Helen G. Mank, 

 Lawrence, Massachusetts. 



