MONOGRAPH OF WEST INDIAN" STAPHYLINIDAE 35 



conditions of examination. Indeed, it is absolutely necessary to 

 know the amount of magnification used by the previous workers 

 in order that one should not see more than they were able to see 

 and therefore get a diiferent result. One recent worker has gone 

 so far as to suggest that possibly all Aleocharinae have the tarsi 

 5-segmented in reality, although they have been described as having 

 them 5-5-5, 5-5-4, 5-4-4, 111 , 3-3-3, and even more reduced. This 

 is certainly not the case, but examples are numerous to show that 

 this group is a plastic or changing one in regard to these matters 

 of segmentation (and perhaps other characters). It should be ob- 

 vious, therefore, that a reliable classification cannot be built primarily 

 upon tlic tarsal and palpal segmentation, and inasmuch as our only 

 classifications now do depend on those characters there is a high de- 

 gree of probability that there are duplications and involved synony- 

 mies to be discovered. In such a situation it is very hard to see what 

 is gained by describing new species or by attempting to make identi- 

 fications. If one may judge from the flood of new species of Aleo- 

 charinae that have been described in recent years, there are students 

 of this family who will not agree with this point of view. Never- 

 theless, until some sort of practicable order be brought into what 

 appears now to be a hopeless chaos (from the point of view of all 

 save a few specialists), I believe it far better not to add to the con- 

 fusion by publishing new species or even new records, except in a 

 few cases where the species are readily recognizable in spite of the 

 generic confusion. For this subfamily, therefore, I have not at- 

 tempted to prepare diagnoses, keys, or descriptions, although many 

 of the West Indian species are probably recognizable when isolated 

 from all foreign species. It has been thought worth while to list 

 the species that have been described and give the West Indian rec- 

 ords. It appears that this is all that can be done at the present 

 time without adding to the confusion that already exists. 



The subfamily Euaosthetinae is a small and relatively unstudied 

 one. Virtually none of the genera have been described at all, and 

 generic assignments can be made only with the greatest difficulty. 

 The time Avas not available to make a generic revision of the group, 

 so I have merely listed the described species and the known records. 



The genus Palamimts contains several species described from the 

 West Indies. The other American species are very imperfectly 

 known and the limits of specific variation have not been ascertained. 

 Some material in this genus was available to me, but it seemed insuf- 

 ficient to permit decisions as to specific limits. I have, therefore, 

 listed the species without keys, given the known records, and left 

 the remaining specimens to be studied at some later time. 



