It is found in Africa, Australia, Europe and Northern Asia (excluding China), North America, and South America.

The species name has been frequently misspelled as globulus.

[1][2] The species name was originally published as Ptinus globulum by Solier in 1849, under the "section" (equivalent to a subgenus) he named therein as Trigonogenius.

[3] Numerous subsequent authors have historically misspelled the name as globulus, though some sources still use the correct spelling (e.g.,[4][5]).

Solier, in the same work, named a variety of this species as "var.