[1] The best-known member is the notorious Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), an important agricultural pest.

[3] Flightless species (at least in the Australian chrysomeline fauna) tend to be small and dark, and also nocturnal.

[2] Larvae can be recognised by: 6 pairs of stemmata on the head; labial palpi 2-segmented; mandibles palmate; labrum freely articulated; annular spiracles; legs present, with paronychial appendix and pretarsus; not in a transportable case.

[3] Larvae of some Platyphora attach trichomes from their host plant to hairs on their back, possibly to camouflage themselves.

[5] The oldest members of the family are several species of the genus Mesolpinus, belonging to the extinct monotypic tribe Mesolpinini, known from the Aptian aged Yixian Formation of China.