Belonging to one of the main groups of parasitizing caterpillars
subfamilies, the wasp genera of Microplitis and Snellenius are quite
unique in comparison to their relatives.
This
unique adaption evolved once in an ancestor related to the
subfamilies Malacosteinae and Melanostomiinae, respectively (Kenaley, DeVaney, & Fjeran, 2014).