In recent years, zoologists have been reviewing the family-group names in several major orders of animals. One of the goals of these works is to provide a foundation of valid, accepted names, which will alleviate the unnecessary proposal of new taxa, facilitate decisions on priority, promote long-term stability of the classification, and pave the way for the ongoing transition of taxonomy into the digital age. More than in any other group of living organisms, the publication of scientific names for the order Coleoptera has been prolific, both at the species level, and in the suprageneric ranks, as a result of their exceptional morphological diversity.

A dedicated team of coleopterists from around the globe have collaborated in a comprehensive review of what is known about the higher classification and nomenclature of beetles, producing a complete catalogue of the nearly 5000 known extant and fossil family-group names for the first time. The data are presented in a classification framework and the publication dates are given for the majority of the more than 2500 references cited, in order to assess both availability and priority of the names.

Although some nomenclatural problems will still need to be addressed in the future, this monograph, the largest of its kind in the zoological literature, will hopefully go a long way towards achieving the long-term stability of names used in beetle higher classification.