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.

The freshwater crabs of the Seychelles Archipelago are morphologically and phylogenetically unique and have long been viewed as a single species. Here we use DNA analysis, haplotyping and gonopod characters to recognise two new species in the endemic genus Seychellum. Speciation within the Archipelago took place following the original trans-oceanic colonisation event by ancestral populations from the African mainland.