THE GENERIC NAMES OF THE 

 BEETLE FAMILY STAPHYLINIDAE 



WITH AN ESSAY ON GENOTYPY 



By Richard E. Blackwelder 



INTRODUCTION 



The problems surrounding the use of generic names in the family 

 Staph ylinidae are surely no different from those encountered in other 

 groups of animals. They include such matters as synonymy, homony- 

 my, emendation, errors in spelling, misapplication zoologically, vali- 

 dation, date, author, and priority. Nevertheless, this family presents 

 unusual opportunities for demonstration of the principles involved, 

 because of its large size, its homogeneity, and the extreme range in 

 size and complexity of its component groups. 



The study of this family, as far as all aspects except the description 

 of new forms are concerned, has been relatively neglected. This has 

 been due largely to the difficulties that do actually accompany such 

 study. The difficulties are the small average size of the individuals 

 and the unusual lack of readily observable characters in some sections. 

 These have been real difficulties, as shown by the general belief among 

 coleopterists that this is a difficult family and by the unsatisfactory 

 condition of nearly all collections of the family. 



The study of all groups of beetles has suffered from a long series of 

 difficulties arising from historical factors, inadequate knowledge of 

 biological principles, and illogical sequence of investigations. The 

 early development of classification systems based upon single struc- 

 tures, such as the tarsi or the trophi, tended to blind students to other 

 structures and to prevent a consideration of the relative importance of 

 other characters. In most groups in which there has been any study 

 of comparative anatomy, or any inibiased search for characters 

 throughout the body with evaluation of relative stability, these have 

 come long after a classification had been established. In most cases 

 the implications of the morphological study have not been followed by 

 the taxonomists in the classification and definition of the groups. 



