BEETLES. 25 



FAMILY I. Staphylinidce. 



Antennae slender, the apical joints rarely thickened; tarsi 

 generally five-jointed ; elytra usually much shorter than half the 

 abdomen, which is freely moveable. 



The Staphylinidce, or Eove Beetles, are an extensive family, of 

 small or moderate-sized species, which are very numerous in Europe, 

 and doubtless in most other parts of the world, though they 

 have been much less assiduously collected abroad than the larger 

 and more attractive groups of beetles. They feed on decaying 

 vegetable and animal matter, and the smaller species are found 

 among moss, dung, or fungi, under bark, etc., and several inhabit 

 ants' nests. 



Aleocliara Fuscipes, Fabr., measures about a quarter of an inch 

 in length, and is black, with brown or blackish elytra, and reddish- 

 brown legs. It is a carrion feeder, and most of the species of 

 Aleochara, Grav., a large genus which is well represented in most 

 parts of the world, feed either on dung or carrion. 



Several genera allied to Aleochara, such as Dinarda, Mannerh., 

 and Myrmedonia, Er., are found chiefly, if not exclusively, in ants' 

 nests. The species are brown or black, measuring a quarter of 

 an inch in length, or under ; and are not unlike the ants among 

 whom they live, apparently on friendly terms enough, though 

 some writers have conjectured that they feed upon the ants. 



Oxypoda Opaca, Grav., a black insect, about an eighth of an 

 inch in length, may serve to represent the smaller species allied to 

 Aleochara, which are extremely numerous; Oxypoda and Homalota, 

 Mannerh., being two of the largest genera. They are very small 

 beetles, generally of a black, brown, or yellowish colour, and are 

 chiefly found in damp places, among decaying vegetable matter; 

 and some species of Oxypoda are met with in ants' nests. One 

 small black beetle allied to these (Diglossa Mersa, Hal.) is found 

 between tide-marks, like the species of Aepus. 



Leaving the Aleocharince we pass on to a less extensive group, 

 the Tachyporince, in which the abdomen is longer and more pointed. 

 The species are generally met with in dung, or among dead leaves 

 or other vegetable refuse. Tachinus Subterraneus, Linn., is a shin- 

 ing black insect, with a reddish spot on each shoulder, and brown 

 legs ; it is about a quarter of an inch in length. 



The largest species of this family belong to the typical sub- 

 family Staphylinince. One of the largest and commonest is the Devil's 



