126 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



Throughout the present work and in future publications 

 of the author, the title ''America," will refer to the United 

 States of America alone. The continent of which America 

 forms a part, is named North America by common usage; the 

 continent south of Panama is, in a similar way, universally 

 known as South America. Having assumed the name 

 United States of America at our birth as a nation, the single 

 word standing for the country, and the only name from 

 which an adjective can be properly derived, is America, in a 

 manner conforming to that by which Mexico is derived from 

 the full official title of the country — the United States of 

 Mexico — or Colombia from the United States of Colombia. 

 It is thought that by following this geographic terminology 

 consistently no doubt or ambiguity need arise. 



As on previous occasions, an asterisk will be prefixed to 

 those subtribes, genera or other groups, which do not occur 

 within the confines of America. 



St. Louis, Juue 5, 1906. 



Subfamily ALEOCHARINAE. 



Omitting for the present certain aberrant forms of Staphy- 

 linidae, for the most part having small anterior coxae, the 

 remainder of this great family may be assigned, apparently 

 with some degree of propriety, to two subfamilies. One of 

 these subfamilies may be formed from what are now known 

 as the tribes Aleocharini and Tachyporini, the second com- 

 prising the succeeding tribes such as Staphylinini, Stenini, 

 Paederini and others. It is easy to recall certain bonds of 

 affinity uniting together the discordant elements of each of 

 these vast complexes; for example, the dilatation of the an- 

 terior tarsi is unknown or extremely rare in the Aleocharinae 

 and very frequent in the Staphylininae, and, again, the ex- 

 ternal sexual characters of the male generally evince them- 

 selves on the dorsal plates of the abdomen in the former and 

 on the ventral surface alone in the latter. As a rule, also, 



