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Charles H. Seevers, Henry S. Dybas, A Synopsis of the Limulodidae (Coleoptera): a New Family Proposed for Myrmecophiles of the Subfamilies Limulodinae (Ptiliidae) and Cephaloplectinae (Staphylinidae), Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 36, Issue 3, 1 September 1943, Pages 546–586, https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/36.3.546
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Abstract
The subfamily Cephaloplectinae of the Staphylinidae as now constituted is a very heterogenous group of genera; some of its members are not even staphylinids, and the others may well be assigned to other subfamilies. In 1883, Sharp described a very remarkable beetle, Cephaloplectus godmani, which had been collected from a Panamanian army-ant colony, and erroneously believing it to be a staphylinid, proposed the subfamily category to receive it. Subsequent investigators, especially Wasmann, perpetuated the error and increased the confusion immeasurably by assembling within the subfamily a number of unrelated beetles collected with army-ants and termites. The eight genera which have comprised the Cephaloplectinae resemble each other in only the most superficial characters and represent four rather widely divergent groups of beetles. One of these groups, including Cephaloplectus and related genera, should be removed from the Staphylinidae and the other groups should be reassigned to proper categories within that family. The investigations herein reported were initiated with the object of clearing up this situation as completely as possible with the material available. The problems proved to be more numerous than was first apparent, and instead of one paper, several will be necessary. The present paper is concerned with the removal of the non-staphylinid genera of the Cephaloplectinae and their combination with several genera of the Ptiliidae to form a new family. The remaining genera of the Cephaloplectinae will be reassigned in a later paper.
