STAPUVLINID^. ^ 



Sharp ami oth<'.r writeis on the family, and there still remain vast fields 

 yet unexplored in South America, Cfiitral Africa, &c., which are certain 

 to yield a very large number of species; it is, therefore, iiupossilile to 

 at all estimate the number of species that will eventually be found to 

 belong to the family ; the genus ranges over the whole of the vyorld from 

 the Arctic to the Antarctic regions, and in all the intermediate coun- 

 tries ; some of the tropical species are very fine and brilliantly coloured, 

 but, as a rule, the hotter climates seem richer in the smaller forms than 

 in the larger: certain species have a very wide range; thus Qu&Hus 

 fulgidus occms as far north as Discovery Bay (from which locality a single 

 specimen was brought by Captain Feilden, who accompanied the voyage 

 of the Alert ai.d Discover 1/ in 1875-6), and extends over Greenland 

 and the whole of North America and Europe, and as far south as the 

 Atlantic Islands. 



Upwards of 800 species of the family are found in Britain ; owing 

 to their great difficulty the Staphylinidie were much neglected by our 

 old collectors, and in fact in many of their collections they were scarcely 

 represented. Leach and Stephens first brought them into prominence, 

 but we are mainly indebted to the indefatigable labours of the late Dr. 

 Power, and to the work and writings of Dr. Sharp, for the comparatively 

 complete knowledge of the family as far as our fauna is concerned ; as 

 stated above, it is a very difficult matter to find satisfactory characters 

 for the subdivision of the tribes and genera, and any tabular arrangement 

 must be more or less unsatisfactory ; the arrangement adopted bch)W 

 will, however, be probably found of service if studied in conjunction 

 with the general descriptions. 



For full particulars regarding the family the student is referred to 

 the many excellent foreign works that have been written upon it. 

 Among the chief of these the following may be mentioned : — "Genera 

 et 



monograp 



tert , ^ 



Coleoptera, Brachelytra" (Thomson); " Naturgesichte der Insect.'U 



Deutschlands, vol. ii., Staphylinida^ " (Kraatz); and numerous monographs 



on various groups and genera, such as Pandelle on the European Tachy- 



porina (Annales de la Soc. Ent. Francaise, ix. 1869) ; Sharp on the 



British Homalotie (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1869); Matthews on the 



genus Myllfena (Cist. Ent. iii. page 33), and others. 



The family, as far as our fauna is concerned, may bf divided into the 

 following sixteen sub-families, which are fairly natural ones, but vciy 

 uneven in point of numbers, two or three of them containing only one 

 species in each : — 



I. Antennaj inserted upon the front near the inner margin of the 

 eyes. 

 i. Posterior coxaj large, contiguous ; antenntc not terminated 



by a distinct club AleocHAEINJJ. 



