NOTES ON BRYOTHINUSA WITH DESCRIPTION OF 
THE LARVA OF B. CATALINAE CASEY 
(COLEOPTERA: STAPH YLINIDAE)* 
By Ian Moore and R. E. Orth 
Division of Biological Control, University of California 
Riverside, 92521 
A number of insects are restricted to special marine habitats along 
the California seashore. At least one of these habitats is intertidal in 
the sense that its fauna is regularly submerged by the tides. This is 
the fauna of the reefs. Several species of staphylinids are known 
from this region. Members of the staphylinid genera Liparocephalus, 
Amblopusa and Diaulota are found on the rocky shores of northern 
California; while in southern California only members of the genera 
Diaulota and Bryothinusa are known. Several studies have dealt 
with these insects including Chamberlain and Ferris (1929) and 
Moore (1956a, 1956b). Larvae of some of the species have been 
described. The larva of Bryothinusa catalinae Casey is described 
and illustrated for the first time in this paper. 
Bryothinusa catalinae (Fig. 1), the type species of the genus, was 
described by Casey in 1904. Sawada (1955, 1971) described four 
species from Japan under the name Halaesthenus. Several species 
were described from the harbor at Hong Kong by Moore and 
Legner (1971) and Moore, Legner and Chan (1973). Finally, 
another species was made known by Moore and Legner (1975) from 
the Gulf of California, bringing the total number of known species 
to eleven. All but one of these is restricted to an intertidal habitat; 
the exception being B. fluenta Moore et al. which was found by Tai- 
Din Chan in a strictly fresh water habitat in a stream emptying into 
Hong Kong harbor. 
Bryothinusa catalinae is not common in collections probably 
because of its restricted habitat. Derham Giuliani collected ten adult 
specimens of this species incidental to other work in October, 1976, 
near White Point, San Pedro, California, and presented the speci- 
mens to us. We made two trips to the area in November and 
December, 1977, where we found both adults and larvae fairly 
common. This special habitat may be described as follows: 
* Manuscript received by the editor September 15, 1978. 
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