Abstract. The higher classification of Tenebrionidae is analysed using numerical phenetic, numerical cladistic and traditional Hennigian methods. In all, eighty characters are examined for about 335 taxa; definitive analyses are made on combinations of eighteen to seventy characters for thirty‐three OTUs. At lower levels of relationship (genera and closely related tribes) phenetic and cladistic classifications are shown to be congruent, but at higher levels (tribes and subfamilies) there is marked discordance with phenetic results being more stable. A consensus classification is more similar to the Hennigian cladogram than is any single computer generated cladogram. Two main tribal groups – the Lagrioid and Tenebrionoid groups – are suggested which differ in defensive glands, female anatomy, wing and mouthpart morphology, larval characters and other features. The Tenebrionoid group consists of three main subdivisions – the tenebrionine, coelometopine and diaperine lineages. Changes in classificatory position are recommended for eighty‐seven genera and tribes (listed in Appendix E) and implied for numerous others.

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Changes in the higher classification of Zopheridae and Tenebrionidae are specified, mostly within the context of Watt's (1974b) revised subfamily classification of Tenebrionidae. New or revised diagnoses are provided for adults and/or larvae of several higher taxa, and larval descriptions of several tribes are provided for the first time.The family Zopheridae is classified as three subfamilies, Ulodinae, Usechinae and Zopherinae. Usechini is transferred from Tenebrionidae into Zopheridae.

Ammophila arenaria, a grass commonly used to stabilize loose sand, disrupts the structure of sand dune arthropod communities. Total numbers of arthropods are related to percent cover of A. arenaria by a hypocycloid function, so that even low percentages of the grass cover strongly depress arthropod populations. Species area curves (plotted logarithmically) have consistently steeper slopes on dunes supporting A. arenaria, indicating fewer species and a smaller number of rare species than on natural dunes. Species (dominance) diversity of arthropods declines in an inverse linear fashion as the density of A. arenaria increases. In contrast, dune stabilization by native plants increases arthropod diversity and numbers.