Trend Lines and the Number of Species of Staphylinidae

The limitations of the use of trend lines to predict the number of species existing are explained.The Cicindelidae of America north of Mexico are used as an example to explain the fitting of calculated trend lines as op posed to the rule-of-thumb methods which have been used by previous authors.The limitations of interpretation of calculated trend lines are ex plained.The number of species of Staphylinidae of America north of Mex ico is estimated as > 3,416 by a simple method independent of trend lines and it is demonstrated that the use of trend lines gives an erroneous predic tion of this total.The number of species of Staphylinidae of the world can not at present be estimated with any accuracy because of paucity of data suitable for analysis.