It contains about 100 species of intermediate to large size (15–50 millimetres or 0.59–1.97 inches), black or brown, living in the tropical areas of the Old World.

They mostly live in grasslands and pastures, occasionally in forests, where they eat large mammals’ dung, using it to make pedotrophic nests in which their offspring develop.

Due to their rather large size and occasional abundance, Catharsius species play important roles in the ecology and soil dynamics of tropical areas.

Among less common species, C. mirabilis Felsche, 1901, occasionally abundant in Eastern Africa, displays a strong sexual dimorphism making it one of the most spectacular African dung beetles.

An additional group of some 65, much smaller (5–15 millimetres or 0.20–0.59 inches) species, mostly from tropical Africa, is sometimes erected into a separate genus: Metacatharsius Paulian, 1939.