STAPH YL1NTD7E. 
89 
wet places. Among the exceptions to these habitats, 
it may be remarked that a few species live under bark, 
in flowers, in sand or shingle, sometimes beneath the 
tide-mark, or as parasites upon insects of the order 
Hymenoptera. 
Many authors have placed this section at the ex- 
treme end of the Coleoptem, — either with the idea of a 
circular system, coming back to the Geodephaga at the 
beginning through Dromius and Homnlium, or wishing 
to establish a link with the Dermaptera, or Earwigs. 
Such a position, however, if only by removing it from 
its close ally, the section of Necrophaga, seems directly 
opposed to the natural affinities of its members. 
The Staphylinidce (by many authors called Brache- 
lytra ) are nearly always of an elongate, linear, 
and flattened shape ; rarely convex ; moderate in size, 
the majority being very small, and some exceedingly 
minute ; dull, or slightly metallic in colour, occasionally 
ornamented with red or yellow spots on the elytra, and 
but rarely exhibiting bright tints. Some are very 
polished and destitute of hairs, but the greater part 
are clothed with a fine short pubescence, which is in a 
few instances long and thick. 
Among the points to be noticed in discriminating 
between closely allied forms, the following will be 
found most worthy of attention : — the relative length 
and width of the joints of the antennae and tarsi, the 
degree of punctuation and pubescence, the length of 
the elytra, the markings (if any) on the thorax, and 
the sexual characters afforded by the sculpture, &c., 
of the under side of the terminal segments of the 
abdomen in the males of very many species. 
This sculpture, &c., usually takes the form of a 
