There are seven known species, which are native to high-elevation regions in southern North America from central Mexico to Guatemala, and in eastern Asia, from India to Japan and eastern Russia.

They are generally associated with rotting logs, typically found under bark, though the Mexican species S. westwoodi has been found inside large decaying columnar cacti.

[1][2] A fossil species, Syntelia sunwukong, is known from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) aged Burmese amber of Myanmar.

[1] The characteristics of the family and genus include geniculate antennae with 3-segmented club, elongate body, narrowly separated coxae and tarsi with bisetose empodia.

[4] The genus described by John O. Westwood in 1864, while the family was erected by George Lewis in 1882.