MORPHOLOGY OF THE COLEOPTEROUS 

 FAMILY STAPHYLINIDAE 



By RICHARD E. BLACKWELDER 

 Stanford University, California 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Introduction 2 



The literature on the Staphylinidae 3 



Material 4 



Preparation of material 4 



Illustrations 6 



Morphology of the Staphylinidae 7 



General considerations 7 



Structure of a representative species 9 



The head g 



The appendages of the head 13 



The tentorium 17 



The cervix 18 



The thorax 18 



The endothorax 28 



The appendages of the thorax 31 



The wings 31 



The legs 36 



The abdomen 42 



The genitalia 47 



Comparative morphology of the family 49 



The head 49 



The appendages of the head 56 



The thorax 65 



The legs 73 



The abdomen 77 



The genitalia 81 



Discussion 86 



Variation and range of structure 86 



Characters available for classification 87 



The value of existing classifications and some suggestions concerning 



them 89 



List of species studied 90 



Abbreviations used on figures 92 



Bibliography 95 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 94, No. 13 



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