Abstract: Coleoptera is the most diverse among all organismal lineages, which is subdivided into four suborders, i. e., Archostemata (Kolbe, 1908), Myxophaga (Crowson, 1955), Adephaga (Schellenberg, 1806) and Polyphaga (Emery, 1886). With the popularity of molecular biology, the research of molecular phylogeny of Coleoptera has been improved a lot. In this article, the progress and problems in the research of higher level molecular phylogeny of Coleoptera were reviewed. Based on molecular methods, many hypotheses were proposed. Most of them supported that the four suborders are all monophyletic, while their relationship is still unclear. The molecular phylogenetic relationship of superfamilies or families of each suborder also got much understanding. For example, molecular results supported that Adephaga could be divided into two groups, i. e., Hydraphaga and Geadephaga, which were sister groups, indicating a single colonization of the aquatic medium. Currently, the higher level phylogenetic studies of Coleoptera based on molecular methods are not mature and perfect, and this is mainly manifested in limited material selection, uneven number and unsatisfactory fitness of genes, and lack of researches of some key nodes.

Key words: Coleoptera, higher category, molecular phylogenetics, phylogeny, classification system, monophyly