The last comprehensive world-catalogue of the Coccinellidae was published 72 years ago. Intensive systematic and faunistic studies on this popular group of beetles, pursued by three generations of entomologies, have extended our knowledge so much that a new, updated catalogue summarizing the data accumulated since the time of Linnaeus became urgently needed. The present publication is the first of planned four parts. Tribes, genera and species have been arranged alphabetically within their respective higher taxa. The catalogue has been primarily based on the data from original publications; unfortunately, however, some papers (marked as "not seen") had remained unattainable, which made quotations from other sources necessary.