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Staphylinidae (rove beetles)


A huge family and difficult to identify. I had been planning to pend most of my 'Staphs' until the publication of Duff's Volume 2 of Beetles of Britain and Ireland but in the end I decided to progress as far as I could using Hackston's keys (great as far as they go, but don't yet cover every genus to species level). Part way through sorting them all out I realised that there are two excellent handbooks in the RES series covering most of the rove beetles including several that I'd been stuck on (part 5 by Lott and parts 7 & 8 by Lott and Anderson). Not sure why I hadn't acquired these before - I don't think I realised how much of the family was covered or how good they are! I am now making better progress armed with these. The subfamily Aleocharinae isn't covered by these books and remains a problem for me: I have a few pended until I can access better references.

Note that the carrion beetle family Silphidae has recently been downgraded to a subfamily (or two?) of Staphylinidae. At some point I will update this website accordingly but for now Silphidae is still treated here as a separate family.


subfamily Aleocharinae

includes genera Callicerus, Cypha and Ocalea

Cypha longicornis Callicerus rigidicornis Callicerus rigidicornis Callicerus rigidicornis

Callicerus rigidicornis Cypha longicornis


subfamily Omaliinae

includes genera Anthobium, Dropephylla, Eusphalerum, Lesteva and Omalium

Dropephylla ioptera Lesteva longoelytrata Eusphalerum minutum Omalium rivulare

Dropephylla ioptera Eusphalerum minutum


subfamily Oxytelinae

includes genera Anotylus, Bledius, Carpelimus and Oxytelus

presumed Carpelimus bilineatus Anotylus rugosus probable Bledius bicornis Oxytelus piceus

probable Bledius bicornis Anotylus rugosus


subfamily Paederinae

includes genera Lithocharis and Sunius

Lithocaris nigriceps Lithocaris nigriceps Lithocaris nigriceps Sunius propinquus

Lithocaris nigriceps Lithocaris nigriceps


subfamily Staphylininae

includes genera Megalinus, Ocypus, Othius, Philonthus, Quedius, Tasgius and Xantholinus

Othius laeviusculus Megalinus glabratus Quedius dilatatus Xantholinus longiventris

Quedius dilatatus Megalinus glabratus


subfamily Steninae

includes genus Stenus

Stenus impressus Stenus picipes Stenus picipes Stenus aceris

Stenus impressus Stenus picipes


subfamily Tachyporinae

includes genera Bolitobius, Tachinus and Tachyporus

Tachinus rufipes Tachinus subterraneus Tachyporus pallidus Bolitobius castaneus

Tachinus subterraneus Bolitobius castaneus