A REVISION OF THE MADEIRAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS GEOSTIBA THOMSON, 1858 (COLEOPTERA, STAPHYLINIDAE)

A revision of the types of all Madeiran taxa of Geostiba Thomson as we ll as of further material collected by the authors and from various co llections yielded 15 species, all of them endemic to the Madeiran arch ipelago. 11 species are described for the first time: G, arieiroensis n. sp., G. ruivomontis n. sp., G. bicacanaensis n. sp., G. brancomonti s n. sp., G. graminicola n. sp., G. vaccinicola n. sp., G. lauricola n . sp., G. caligicola n. sp., G. occulta n. sp., G. endogea n. sp. and G. subterranea n. sp. Both G. israelsoni (Palm) and G. waldeni (Palm) are considered junior synonyms of G. filiformis (Woll.), and C. carli Palm is recognized as a synonym of G. lindrothi Franz. Sipalia leileri Palm is transferred to Atheta Thoms. Atheta juengeri Benick is shown to be a junior synonym of Sipalia leileri Palm. The study includes det ailed descriptions of each species, illustrations of diagnostic charac ters, faunistic and ecological data as well as a key allowing identifi cation.