MONOGRAPH OF WEST INDIAN STAPHYLINIDAE 533 



Type locality. — Athens, Ga. 



Types. — In the LeConte collection in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 



Records. — The following are the records known to me: 



Cuba: Cayamas (Schwarz, in U.S.N.M.). 

 Montserrat: (Hubbard, in U.S.N.M.). 



North America: Arizona, Texas, Florida (U.S.N.M.), Georgia (LeConte, 1863), 

 Georgia, Arizona (Horn, 1877), Lake Superior (Casey collection). 



Specimens exmnined. — ^I have seen five examples from the West 

 Indies in the United States National Museum and numerous North 

 American examples. 



Remarks. — This minute species appears to have a wide range 

 although it is seldom collected. A. goeldii Wasmann from Brazil 

 is very similar, if one may judge from the description, and may 

 possibly be the same. It was found in termite nests. 



This species was originally reported from under pine bark, but I 

 find no record concerning the "West Indian examples. 



Subfamily Aleocharinae 



Although this is by far the largest subfamily of staphylinids, it is a 

 very heterogeneous one and one that is very poorly known from the 

 standpoint of classification and morphology. Many thousands of 

 species have been described, but comparatively few generic revisions 

 have been published, and no adequate key to the genera has been 

 proposed. 



The principal classifications that have been proposed have been based 

 on the segmentation of the tarsi and palpi. It is known that these 

 characters are not stable in some groups, but no allowance has been 

 made for this fact. In addition, the structure of the tarsus is such that 

 very different counts can be arrived at with different magnifications. 

 Under these conditions it is exceedingly difficult, as well as uncertain, 

 to make generic identifications, although species can sometimes be 

 readily determined by comparison. 



Under these conditions it appears useless to add to the nmnber of 

 species requiring future reclassification, especially as no particular 

 purpose is served by describing these obscure forms at this time. For 

 this reason, I have compiled the records that have been published from 

 the West Indies, but I have not described the new species that un- 

 doubtedly do exist in our collections, and I have not attempted to 

 identify the known species in this group. 



There have been recorded from the West Indies 156 species belong- 

 ing to 41 genera. 



