A REVIEW OF THE DISTRIBUTION AND HABITATS 
OF NORTH AMERICAN BRATHINUS 
(COLEOPTERA; STAPHYLINIDAE ; OMALIINAE)* 
By Stewart B. Peck 
Department of Biology, Carleton University, 
Ottawa, Ontario KiS 5B6, Canada 
The genus Brathinus , with one Japanese species and three in the 
United States and Canada, has been considered either as the basis for 
the monogeneric family Brathinidae (such as in Arnett, 1963), or as 
belonging to the Staphylinid subfamily Omaliinae (such as in Hatch, 
1957, and Crowson, 1967). Hammond (1971) has reviewed the 
question, has presented a series of eleven morphological characteristics 
of the Omaliinae possessed by Brathinus , and has concluded that 
Brathinus belongs in this subfamily. In addition, he provides a key 
to the species, illustrations of the male genitalia of the American 
species, and comments on the rarity of distribution and habitat data. 
The purpose of this paper is to provide additional habitat data and 
to contribute to an understanding of the distribution of the North 
American species. 
The data are drawn mostly from my own records and collecting, 
and from material in the collections of the California Academy of 
Sciences, San Francisco (CAS), the Canadian National Collection 
of Insects, Ottawa (CNC), the Field Museum of Natural History, 
Chicago (FMNH), the Illinois Natural History Survey, Urbana 
(INHS), the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
(MCZ), and the United States National Museum, Washington, 
D. C. (USNM) . In the following records, the locality and habitat 
data are given first, then, when available, the month of collection in 
lower case Roman numerals, the number of specimens, and the ab- 
breviation of the collections containing the material. 
Brathinus nitidus Leconte 1852 
The species ranges (map 1) from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia 
westwards to the Lake Superior Region, and south along the Ap- 
palachians to northern Alabama. It is associated with cool riparian 
and bog habitats, usually in shaded situations, in moss or wet plant 
roots or under stones, and especially in the spray zone of waterfalls. 
C. Lindroth (in Hammond, I97 1 ) observed the beetles emerging 
* Manuscript received by the editor March 17, 1975 
59 
