Formerly considered to be a subfamily of the Olividae, it was raised to family states after a phylogenetic study recently undertaken by Kantot et al. (2017). This study clearly reveals two sister groups within the Ancillariidae, which are here regarded as subfamilies. Furthermore, the genus Entomoliva appears to be the sister taxaon of the two subfamilies and probably deserves to be included in its own as yet unnamed subfamily.