Biology of Staphylinidae PAS} 
Biologic Investigations on the 
Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) 
Ratey Voris 
Southwest Missouri State Teachers College 
Springfield, Missouri* 
INTRODUC IGS 
This paper is a discussion of the feeding, mating and pupation 
behavior of the beetles of the family meena so together with 
a gaa 2 the literature on these subjects. In addition to field 
data, the conclusions are based on petra: aie while 
handing 1084 cultures of immature and adult forms. 
The study began as a general investigation of the fauna of 
dung. The Staphylinidae are more abundantly represented than 
any other group found in dung, but their relations to the sub- 
Stratum and to the other insect life have never been discussed 
in detail. Finding that my observations were proving distinctly 
contrary to the current conceptions on these points, my atten- 
tion soon narrowed to the Staphylinidae. 
The habitats in which rove beetles are found vary so widely 
that one is not greatly ph lee to find them anywhere. — 
wasps. There are some that are parasitic on the South American 
Opossum. Plant structures, such as flowers, have their regular 
Sstaphylinid visitors while some of the beetles spurn cover o 
any sort and spend their time running about on the shores of 
*Submitted tn Fos fulfillment of the requirements for the degre ee 
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Indiana Univer- 
sity. Contribution No. 221 (Entomological sc Ae No. 6) from the 
Zoological Laboratories of Indiana Univer. 
