OBSERVATIONS ON THE STAPHYLINID GROUPS 



ALEOCHARINAE AND XANTHOLININI, 



CHIEFLY OF AMERICA. 



By Thos. L. Casey. 



The following pages are devoted to the revision of several 

 detached groups of Staphylinidae, which have been almost 

 completely neglected heretofore in American literature. In 

 the Aleocharinae, the parts of the series selected for present 

 review are those which are of more general interest and 

 therefore somewhat systematically collected, although this is 

 only true in a relative sense, there being many most interest- 

 ing genera and species still to be discovered. Besides these 

 groups of the Aleocharinae, a revision of the tribe Xantho- 

 linini is presented, based upon such material as could be con- 

 veniently brought together. Here, as well as among the 

 Aleocharinae, a number of foreign genera and species are in- 

 cluded, more for instructive comparison than anything else, 

 and a list of these will be appended with record of the page 

 of publication, in order to facilitate bibliographic reference. 

 Practically the only published work bearing upon the groups 

 here revised is that of Dr. J. L. LeConte, consisting of some 

 short notes and abbreviated descriptions, which could scarcely 

 be termed synopses, even of the species then known to collect- 

 ors, being restricted to a few more distinctive or representa- 

 tive forms ; in fact, according to the more rational or at least 

 discriminative modern concepts, a very large proportion of 

 them represent distinct genera, and some, originally in- 

 cluded within a single genus such as Falagria, even prove to 

 be the types of genera not at all closely related. Several of 

 the published species are not represented before me at this 

 time, but these would scarcely alter in any way the general 

 scheme of classification adopted for the several groups; 

 they are, however, referred to with all the detail now 

 accessible. 



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