A Revieiw of the Distribution and Habitats of North American Brathinus (Coleoptera; Staphylinidae; Omaliinae)

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, I957, and Crowson, 1967). Hammond (197I) 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 rom my own records and collecting, and from material in the collections o the Caliornia Academy of Sciences, San Francisco (.C_AS), 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. (USNNI). 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 abbreviation o the collections containing the material.