Bembidion is the largest genus of beetles in the family Carabidae by number of species.^[2] All species are small (less than 7.5 mm) and move very fast. Most of them live close to water.^[2] The genus has a biantitropical distribution, meaning they are found in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but not in the tropics.^[3] In warmer regions it is substituted by closely related Tachys and other genera.^[2]

There have been many attempts to divide it into smaller genera, most notably by René Jeannel in 1941 and by G.G. Perrault in 1981, but none of them have been generally accepted.^[2]

This genus is divided into numerus subgenera, some of which are elevated to full genus rank by various authors; as noted above, however, no universally accepted way of splitting the genus exists yet. Bembidion subgenera include:^[4]