There are 56 British species in this family, which also contains the former family Anobiidae.  Most species are small (1-7mm) woodboring beetles, though others are found in stored produce.  There are eight subfamilies in Britain.

Eucradinae is represented by a single species, Hedobia imperialis L., the larvae of which bore Rosacea shrub species.  Adults are 4-6mm long and pubescent, with a grey X across the elytra, and can be found by beating old hedges of hawthorn.

The spider beetles are subfamily Ptininae, and there are 22 British species.  Mostly with globular abdomens and yellow-pubescent appendages, the resemblance to a spider can be striking.  Generally found amongst stored products or old timber, often in buildings.

Subfamily Dryophilinae contains just three British species, two of Dryophilus and one Grynobius.  Grynobius planus (Fabricius) is widespread but local in dead hedges and decaying timber, 4-6mm long with black to dark-red elytra.  Dryophilus pusillus (Gyllenhal) is locally common in association with conifers, and D. anobioides Chevrolat is a Breckland species, where it is found in broom Cytisus scoparius (L.).

There are eight species of Ernobiinae in Britain, including the deathwatch beetle Xestobium villosum (De Geer). The six Ernobius spp. develop in conifers, particularly pines, while X. villosum is found in broadleaf timber and Ochina ptinoides (Marsham) can be found in ivy.

Anobiinae includes nine British 2-6mm species, most famously Anobium punctatum (De Geer), the archetypal woodworm.  Adults have a humped pronotum and all develop in dead wood, with the exception of Stegobium paniceum (L.), the biscuit beetle, which is a pest of stored products.

Ptilininae includes a single British species, Ptilinus pecticornis (L.).  This species is readily recognised from the antennae, which in the female are broadly serrate and in the male, strongly pectinate.  A woodboring species, large swarms can occur around the host tree in late spring and early summer.

Xyletininae has two British representatives, the more abundant of which is Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius), the cigarette beetle.  Local but widely distributed, it is a 3mm, shining red, finely-punctate pest of dried vegetable products, including tobacco.  The scarce Xyletinus longitarsus Jansson is larger (3-4mm) and found in wood across southern England.

Dorcatominae has 10 rare species in Britain.  2-3mm long, all are short, round beetles with charactistic lobed antennal segments expanded on the inner edge.  The group includes fungivores (Caenocara spp.) and woodborers.

Five British species, although the wood-boring habits of the larvae mean several other species are regularly imported in timber and wooden artefacts.  Parallel-sided, elongate and generally brown beetles, 2-9mm, adults are usually found in or around dead wood.  Members of the subfamily Bostrichinae have a strongly hooded pronotum which renders the head invisible from above.

A family of 40 mostly small (1.5-12mm) beetles, many of which are familiar as pests of insect collections and stored products (particularly Anthrenus spp. and Dermestes spp.).  The ‘woolly bear’ larvae can be a frequent sight where protein-rich food sources are available (e.g. dead insects in light fittings).  There are seven subfamilies in Britain.

Three subfamilies (Trinodinae, Thylodriadinae and Thorictinae) have a single British representative each.  The 3mm, pubescent Trinodes hirtus (Fabricius) is widespread in association with woodland, where it is thought to feed on dead insects from spiders’ larders beneath bark or in bark crevices.  The rare synanthropic species Thylodrias contractus Motschulsky, the odd beetle, is highly sexually dimorphic, with a large (2-5mm) larviform female and a smaller (2-3mm) winged male which strongly resembles a cantharid.  Thorictides heydeni Reitter is another rarely-imported species.  1-2mm in length, it is an elongate red-brown species found on stored animal and vegetable products.

The carpet beetles, Attageninae, have seven British representatives, but only one of these (Attagenus pellis (L.)) does not occur mainly as an adventive.  Larvae can be pests on foodstuffs and natural fibres, particularly wool and fur, but are also found in the nests of birds and bees.

Dermestinae is a subfamily of 10 medium-sized (5-12mm) beetles in Britain, many of which can be found indoors.  Elongate, parallel-sided beetles, often drab browns and greys in colour, they feed on a wide variety of protein-rich foods, including carrion, leather, bones, horn, and other detritus indicative of late-stage decay.  When searching for pupation sites larvae can bore through a variety of substances, including lead, wood and books and thus can cause damage in domestic situations

There are 11 species of Megatominae in Britain, many of which are infrequent introductions (Trogoderma spp., Reesa vespulae (Milliron), Orphinus fulvipes (Guerin-Meneville) and Anthrenocerus australis (Hope)).  Some species are found in the wild and Ctesias serra (Fabricius) is widespread beneath old oak bark during the summer.

Anthreninae includes nine species of Anthrenus, small, round species clothed with brown and grey scales.  Adults can often be found nectaring on flowers but some species (particularly Anthrenus verbasci (L.)) are also found indoors and are notorious destroyers of insect collections: they are often referred to as the only beetle collectors are sad to see in a collection.

One species in Britain, Laricobius erichsonii Rosenhauer.  This is a small (3-4mm) beetle with a strongly punctured pronotum and elytra.  It is pubescent, with shining brown elytra bisected by a darker stripe down the elytral suture and a black head and pronotum.  First found in Britain in 1971, it is found on conifers where both adults and larvae are predatory on adelgids.

There are 41 British species of Cantharidae, small to medium-sized (2-15mm) soft-bodied species with leathery elytra.  They are predatory, ready fliers, and many are be common sights on flowers over the summer, particularly Rhagonycha fulva (Scopoli), which is often very abundant in July and August.  There are three subfamilies in Britain.

Cantharinae (24 species) and Silinae (1 species, Silis ruficollis (Fabricius)) are the archetypal soldier beetles: elongate, parallel-sided and coloured red, yellow, black, and navy blue.  All have long elytra, completely or nearly completely covering the abdomen.

Malthininae comprises 16 small elongate species, generally blue-black and often with obvious yellow tips to the elytra.  All have abbreviated elytra, covering at most half of the abdomen.

The glow-worms, named for their famed bioluminescence.  Three species have been found in Britain although one (Lamprohiza splendidula (L.)) is known only from two specimens collected in 1884. All the British species of this group are strongly sexually dimorphic, with a small, winged male (c. 5mm) and a much larger larviform female (to 16mm).

By far the most widespread (though thought to be declining) is Lampyris noctiluca L., the glow-worm.  Females are strongly bioluminescent; males less so and larvae barely.  Males have full elytra and larvae feed on snails.

The lesser glow-worm Phosphaenus hemipterus (Goeze) has been recorded from a handful of sites across southern England but only one extant colony is known, near Burlesdon in Hampshire.  Both sexes are flightless and only weakly bioluminescent: the female (13mm) is wingless while the 10mm male has abbreviated wing-cases and looks rather like a Staphylinid.

The four British species of Lycidae are attractive beetles, relatively large (5-9mm) and bright red, with a distinctive network of longitudinal and transverse lines.  All are scarce as they are found in association with ancient woodland areas, where the larvae can be found in white-rot areas of decay in dead wood.  Platycis minutus (Fabricius) is relatively widespread, flying in August and September, Dictyoptera aurora (Herbst) is found in Scottish conifers in May and June, Pyropterus nigroruber (De Geer) in Scottish broadleaves in July, and the rarest, Platycis cosnardi (Chevrolat) flies in May but has only very rarely been found in Britain.

Just one British species, the 5-16mm Drilus flavescens (Fourcroy), found mostly on the chalk downlands of south-eastern England.  Larvae are predatory on snails and are highly distinctive in appearance: each abdominal segment has an upper and lower lateral fleshy spine bearing large numbers of mid-length hairs, giving the overall impression of a woolly-bear caterpillar (Lepidoptera: Arctidae).  Larvae overwinter in snail shells.

Adults are highly sexually dimorphic.  The male is winged, black with brown, pubescent elytra and looks similar to the Tenebrinid Lagria hirta (L.) but with strongly pectinate antennae.  The female is larviform, flattened, fleshy and rounded, and approximately five times the length of the male.

Named after their ability to violently launch themselves backwards with a clicking noise (thought to be both an anti-predator defence and a self-righting mechanism), there are 73 species of click beetle in Britain.  3-20mm in length, most are black or brown, although Ampedus spp. have bright red elytra and Ctenicera spp. are metallic green or blue.  Generally elongate, parallel-sided beetles, with unclubbed antennae and pointed pronotal hind angles, many fly readily and can be found at light or on feeding on flowers.  Approximately half the group develop as larvae in the soil, and some (particularly Agriotes spp.) can be serious crop pests.  The other half spend their larvae period in dead wood and under bark, where they are predators on the other invertebrate species found in such habitats.

Only five species in Britain, similar in appearance to the Elateridae but smaller than most (1.5-3.5mm) and with antennae bearing three-segmented clubs.  Generally brown beetles, they fly readily, particularly on warm, still evenings, and come to light.  Only one species (Trixagus dermestoides (L.)) is known from either Scotland or Ireland.  This is the only species of Throscidae for which larval habits are known and it lives in the soil feeding on mycorrhizal fungi associated with the roots of various tree species.