[2] These flatworms are mainly predators of other invertebrates, which they hunt, attack and capture using physical force and the adhesive and digestive properties of their mucus.

[4][5] They are generally animals with low vagility (dispersal ability) and with very specific habitat requirements, so they can be also used to accurately determine the distribution of biogeographic realms.

[9] The nervous system of land planarians has the longitudinal nerve cords reduced to one ventral pair that is located much deeper in the body than in other triclads.

[14] Additionally, land planarians have a highly developed ventral nerve plexus just below the epidermis that is probably associated to the presence of a creeping sole.

[4] Most species of land planarians live at the soil of forests, especially in the leaf litter layer, but some may inhabit galleries constructed by other invertebrates or be found on vegetation, such as bromeliads.

[22] All planarians feed through a muscular and eversible pharynx located slightly posteriorly to the middle of the body length and opening through a ventral mouth.

[3] As part of the soil ecosystem, land planarians feed mainly on other invertebrates, such as earthworms, snails, slugs, nemerteans, velvet worms, woodlice, millipedes, insects and arachnids.

[26][27] Another species, Platydemus manokwari, has been used as an agent of biological pest control of the introduced giant African snail Achatina fulica in Hawaii, the Maldives, Irian Jaya, and Guam, but has become an even worse pest and today threatens several native snail populations in the Pacific.

However, recent phylogenetic studies revealed that they are actually the sister-group of Dugesiidae, a family of freshwater planarians (at that time part of the suborder Paludicola).

The following phylogenetic supertree after Sluys et al., 2009[1] presents the current classification of planarians: Maricola Cavernicola Planariidae Kenkiidae Dendrocoelidae Dugesiidae Geoplanidae In the former suborder Terricola, land planarians were separated into three families according to morphological features:[32][33] Recent phylogenetic analyses, however, revealed that Rhynchodeminae and Microplaninae are not closely related and that Caenoplaninae is closer to Rhynchodeminae than to Geoplaninae.