The systematic position of the east Asian ichneumonid subfamily, the Townesioninae, is reviewed. The two component genera, Sachtlebenia Townes and Townesion Kasparyan, are shown to comprise a monophyletic group, but the postulated position of this group as a basal clade of Ichneumonidae is rejected as being unsupported. Rather it is shown that the townesionine genera most probably belong within the Banchinae, putatively as the sister group of Sjostedtiella Szepligeti, an Afrotropical genus of Glyptini. Consequently, the status of the townesionine genera as a separate subfamily is not tenable and it is here synonymized with Glyptini (syn. n.). It is suggested that most of the features previously used to exclude the townesionine genera from the Banchinae are specialisations associated with a putatively highly derived ovipositional biology.