THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF GLYPHOLOMA 
JEANNEL, WITH A NEW SYNONYMY 
(COLEOPTERA: SILPHIDAE, STAPHYLINIDAE)* 
By Alfred F. Newton, Jr. 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Mass. 02138 
Introduction 
In 1962 R. Jeannel described Glypholoma pustuliferum , a new 
genus and species of an interesting small beetle from southern Chile 
for which he created a new tribe in the family Silphidae. A similar- 
looking beetle from southern Argentina was more recently described 
by O. Scheerpeltz as Lathrimaeodes pustulipenne , a new genus and 
species of the staphylinid sub-family Omaliinae. The two species 
have apparently not been compared to one another or otherwise men- 
tioned in the literature. Since neither author gave detailed reasons 
for the placement of his genus, and neither mentioned several char- 
acters that are now considered essential to such placement, the sys- 
tematic position of these genera may be considered unsettled. 
A small series of specimens which agrees with the descriptions of 
both of the above species is in the collection of the Museum of Com- 
parative Zoology. Based on an examination of these specimens and 
on the information given in the original descriptions, I would here 
like to present evidence for the synonymy of the two names, to expand 
upon the published descriptions, and to reconsider the relationships of 
the genus. This paper is also intended as an initial contribution to a 
revision of the classification and phylogeny of Staphylinoidea. 
Synonymy and Distribution 
A careful comparison of the description and figures of Glypholoma 
pustuliferum by Jeannel (1962) with the more detailed description 
and photograph of Lathrimaeodes pustulipenne by Scheerpeltz ( 1972) 
leaves no doubt that the two species are extremely closely allied. The 
agreement is so complete that there is nothing to suggest that more 
than one species is involved. G. pustuliferum was recorded from 
Chile Chico (type locality) and Rio Murta at about 46°3o'S latitude 
^Published with the aid of a grant from the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology. 
Manuscript received by the editor May 5, 1975 
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