Biology of Staphylinidae 237 
animal life which was to be found in the decaying bait. Rau 
(22:48) tells of the feeding of Creophilus villosus (Grav.): 
“They were kept for some time in a deep glass jar half filled 
with earth, and were fed on cooked and raw meat. Often they 
would crawl on top of the provender but seemed very wary; 
a slight lifting of the lid would cause them to scamper under 
cover. When a tiny pool of juice had accumulated on the side 
of the dead mouse which we served to them, the beetles were 
seen to actually drink this up. A small dead garter snake was 
at another time inserted. At a bruised spot on the side, five 
g 
of the snake. Cooked beef was only sparingly nibbled at, but 
when no raw food was given they ate enough of the cooked 
meat to sustain life. They lived thus from April 24 to about 
May 18. Whether their death be was natural, or due to theit 
artificial environment, I know 
An explanation of the drinking of the juice of the mouse 
is not easy. It is possible that the juice was taken as a source 
of water but even if that were the case the presence of broken 
down organic material in the water would necessitate a tolerance 
to such products which is characteristic of scavengers. is 
observation would lead one to believe that they would eat decay- 
ing material when fresh food was not available. The second 
part of the paragraph repudiates the impression given in the 
first part. The snake had undoubtedly not commenced to decay 
and in consequence was not different from the food of a typi- 
cally predacious animal. The beetles would eat cooked beef 
but preferred meat that was uncooked which would be the be- 
r 
Fabre (22:49) also records a similiar behavior in the feeding 
of Creophilus maxillosus (L.), a very closely related European 
species of Creophilus, He says, 
“She alights, coils her ae opens her pinchers and dives 
impetuously into the Mole’s fur. en, with her powerful 
nippers, she punctures the skin, now blue and distended by gases. 
The sanies oozes out. The glutton greedily eats her ; and 
that is all. Soon she departs, as suddenly as she came.” 
The small number of direct observations of staphylinids feed- 
ing on seek matter does not warrant the conclusion that they 
are scavengers 
As Prepators. The observations of true predatism when 
removed from the shadow of the assumed interpretation, are 
very complete and convince one of the general predacious be- 
havior of the Staphylinidae. In the ee pages I will quote 
