Ten tribes are presently recognized: Cetoniini, Cremastocheilini, Diplognathini, Goliathini, Gymnetini, Phaedimini, Schizorhinini, Stenotarsiini, Taenioderini, and Xiphoscelidini.

Adult flower chafers are usually brightly coloured beetles, often metallic, and somewhat flattened in shape.

The tarsi are each equipped with a pair of simple (not forked) tarsal claws of subequal size.

[3][4] A feature possessed by adults of many flower chafers, especially Cetoniini, is lateral emargination of the elytra.

[3] Adult cetoniines are herbivorous, being found on flowers (from which they consume nectar and pollen), tree sap and rotting fruit.

[3][4] Many species in the tribe Cremastocheilini are known to be predaceous, feeding on hymenopteran larvae or soft-bodied nymphs of Auchenorrhyncha.

nymphs[7] and Hoplostomus fuligineus is known to feed on the brood of honey bees in South Africa and the pupae of the wasp Belonogaster petiolata.

[3][5] The following list contains the genera and subtribes in ten tribes of subfamily Cetoniinae, according to Catalogue of Life and Scarabaeidae of the World (2023).