Transactions 



of 



The Royal Society of South Australia (Incorporated) 



VOL. XLVII. 



ON AUSTRALIAN STAPHYLINIDAE (COLEOPTERA). 



By Arthur M. Lea, F.E.S., Museum Entomologist. 

 [Read November 9, 1922.] 



The family Staphylinidae, in actual numbers, is probably, in Australia, 

 second only to the Curculionidae (if not actually in excess of it), but has been 

 more neglected than any other of the large ones. Thus in Masters' Catalogue 

 only 278 species, out of a total of 7,201, are recorded. In Sharp's Catalogue of 

 the British Coleoptera, of a total of 3,193 species, 760 are Staphylinidae, these 

 being in excess of the Curculionidae. Even now less than 1,000 species are 

 known from Australia, a number certainly far short of that which occurs in 

 Queensland alone. 



My present purpose is not to revise the family, but to give a list of all the 

 species previously recorded from Australia, with their distribution, notes on 

 various species, and descriptions of new ones. 



Masters' Catalogue of Australian Coleoptera was published when com- 

 paratively few species of the family were recorded from Australia, and many 

 of those there noted have been generically transferred. In Junk's Coleopterorum 

 Catalogus, Bernhauer and Schubert are now dealing with the Staphylinidae of 

 the world, and to save space it was considered necessary only to refer to the pages 

 of that Catalogue in which our genera are recorded. Our main geographical 

 districts are recorded by initials as follows: — Q. (Queensland), N.S.W. (New 

 South Wales), V. (Victoria), Tas. (Tasmania), S.A. (South Australia), W.A. 

 (Western Australia), N.W.A. (North-western Australia), N.T. (Northern Ter- 

 ritory), and C.A. (Central Australia). Synonymy of introduced species has 

 usually been omitted. 



No family of beetles may be more readily identified ; the long abdomen, 

 usually with seven conspicuous segments, short elytra, at most covering the base 

 of the abdomen, and general appearance being at once distinctive. Most of the 

 species are small and obscurely coloured and so seldom have an attractive appear- 

 ance, even when properly "set." To see the abdomen clearly specimens should 

 be mounted, when fresh, with all the segments fully exposed ; this was seldom' 

 done with the specimens sent to me, and in general is neglected ; the result is that 

 the segments become more or less telescoped, and no dependence is to be placed 

 upon their apparent size ; the apparent shapes of the under parts also vary in 

 appearance with the positions of the legs. It is often essential to examine the 

 palpi, necessitating their dissection for examination under the microscope. The 



