[1] The Platystomatidae were comprehensively divided into five subfamilies,[2][3] but more recent reviews of morphology[4][5] suggest that some aspects of this classification are unsatisfactory.

[4] Adults of some genera can be found resting on the underside of foliage, while others utilise cryptic colouration and speckled wing patterns to escape detection on bark or rock surfaces.

[7] Larvae are found on fresh and decaying vegetation, fruit, sugar cane, maize, coconuts, tree sap, carrion, human corpses, and root nodules, particularly in the genus Rivellia, which has economic implications for legume crops.

[8] There is a record in the Australian Museum (Sydney) of larvae of the genus Elassogaster attacking eggs capsules of migratory locust (Locusta migratoria).

For example, Plagiostenopterina Hendel, 1912, is widely distributed in the Old World tropics (Australasian, Oriental and Afrotropical regions) and Rivellia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 is almost cosmopolitan,[4] although numbers of species in Europe are very restricted.