The genus Geoplana was erected in 1857 by William Stimpson and included most land planarians with several eyes distributed along the body.

In the same year, apparently unaware of Stimpson's paper, the naturalist Max Schultze, based on published information and new species collected in Brazil by the naturalist Fritz Müller, also erected a genus named Geoplana, but included all land planarians in it.

During most of the 20th century, many new land planarian species, mostly from Australia and South America, were placed in Geoplana.

[4] During the 21st century, molecular studies revealed that Geoplana sensu Ogren & Kawakatsu was still heterogeneous.

Currently, the genus Geoplana is characterized by having the features described by Ogren & Kawatasu (dorsal testes, a protrusible penis and a female canal entering the genital antrum dorsally) plus several others, such as a slender body with nearly parallel margins, a strongly convex dorsum, monolobulated eyes (i.e., simple and circular, with only one lobe), and a strong muscle tube around the intestine.