BY A. SIDNEY OLLIFF, F.E.S. 407 



pass their lives in the nests of ants. Little or nothing has been 

 written concerning the habits of the Australian species, but the 

 Coleopterist who has been accustomed to collect these insects in 

 Europe is at once struck by the constancy with which the habits 

 of a particular genus or tribe are maintained in their antipodean 

 representatives. 



Of the metamorphoses of the Australian Staphylinidae nothing 

 is known, and even our knowledge of those of Europe is very 

 scanty. The larva3 somewhat resemble the perfect insects and 

 vary comparatively little among the different species. They are 

 exceedingly active and voracious not unfrequently attacking prey 

 many times their own bulk. (1) Their chief characters may be 

 briefly summarized as follows : — Elongate, linear or narrowed 

 posteriorly ; antennae composed of four or five joints ; ocelli 

 variable in number ; mouth-organs always well developed, the 

 mandibles simple or bifid, rarely dentate ; nine abdomina 

 segments visible, the apical segment provided with two movable 

 bi-articulate appendages ; legs short ; tarsi terminated by a single 

 claw. 



Nineteen species, mostly European, are enumerated by Chapuis 

 and Candeze in their " Catalogue des larves Coleopteres," and a few 

 have since been described by Candeze, Kraatz, Perris and others, 

 but there is, perhaps, no family so considerable as the Staphylinidae 

 of which so little is known of the earlier stages. 



Sub-Family I. ALEOCHARIN^E. (2) 



Prothoracic stigmata conspicuous. Antennae inserted upon the 

 front, close to the inner anterior margin of the eyes. No ocelli. 

 Elytra leaving nearly the whole of the abdomen exposed. 

 Abdomen laterally margined, the terminal segment often indistinct 

 and contracted within the preceding one. Anterior coxae large 



(1) For an instance where a Staphylinid larva, measuring about half an 

 inch, was observed in a vigourous encounter with an earthworm five inches 

 in length, see Nature, XXX., p. 146 and Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond , 18S4, 

 p. XVIII. 



(2) For a valuable paper treating of the genera of this sub-family, see 

 Kraatz, Linnaea Entomologica XI., pp. 1-43 (1857). 



