Rediscovery of the South African endemic wasp Echthrodesis lamorali, an egg parasitoid of intertidal spiders, has enabled an assessment of the species’ evolutionary relationships. Molecular sequence data determined that this species is related to other southern hemisphere wasps using silk encased eggs as hosts. Unravelling the biology and evolutionary relationships of this tiny wasp allows for an appreciation of the evolutionary history of an ecologically important group of insects.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that South America is the centre of diversity of the rare parasitoid wasp family Orussidae. Three new species are described and placed in a phylogenetic context, leading to the placement in synonymy of the genus Stirocorsia. The phylogenetic analyses corroborates that the large ophrynopine subclade radiated in the Cenozoic in the Australasian-Oceanian and the Neotropic regions.