Cucujiformia

Cucujiformia is an infraorder of polyphagan beetles, representing most plant-eating beetles. Genetic studies have shown that the traditional superfamily "Cucujoidea" is not a single natural group, helping scientists better understand how "Cucujiformia" evolved. Rather transcriptomic evidence shows that Cucujiformia likely originated in the Permian, with major superfamily diversification during the Cretaceous time period, in connection with the rise of flowering plants.

Phytophaga is a clade of beetles within the infraorder Cucujiformia consisting of the superfamilies Chrysomeloidea and Curculionoidea that are distinctive in the plant-feeding habit combined with the tarsi being pseudotetramerous or cryptopentamerous, where the fourth tarsal segment is typically greatly reduced or hidden by the third tarsal segment. The Cucujoidea are a sister to the Phytophaga. In some older literature the term Phytophaga was applied only to the Chrysomeloidea.