With over 55,000 species described worldwide andover 1,000 of these recorded in Britain and Ireland,the Staphylinidae represent one of the mostspecies rich families in the animal kingdom. Thisbook is the first of a series of identification keysincorporating recent advances in the taxonomy ofStaphylinidae into simple, easy-to-use keys.Illustrated keys are provided for the identificationof the subfamilies of British Staphylinidae, withthree subfamilies, Scaphidiinae, Piestinae andOxytelinae, which form the Oxyteline group, beingcovered in full in this volume.