Staphylininae

I have always struggled with members of this subfamily to key to subfamily level. One of the biggest challenges is determining whether or not the antennae insertion points are on the upper or side surface of the head, clearly visible from above or not. I don't think I can be the only one who struggles here as I now realise that the two keys I've been using require the opposite answer to this. Using Hackston they must be on the side whereas using Lott & Anderson they are on the upper surface. Admittedly the two keys phrase the question slightly differently, but according to Lott & Anderson the insertion points are clearly visible from above and according to Hackston they are not clearly visible from above! Hackston does allow for the possibility that the extreme base of the antennae may be visible from above, which I think is fair. I hope when Andrew Duff's volume 2 is published he will find a way of bringing some clarity to this (Duff is now out - I'm not sure it is a great deal clearer in this respect, but I'm starting to get a bit better at predicting what subfamily they're in).

Tribe Othiini

Othius laeviusculus