The relationships of the unusual salticid spider Depreissia from central Africa and Borneo have been difficult to resolve, obscured by its highly modified ant-like body. Phylogenetic analysis of the gene 28S strongly supports its placement outside the major clade Salticinae and within the clade of cocalodines, spartaeines and lapsiines, with weaker support for a relationship with the cocalodines in particular. Excluding the genus from the Salticinae is supported also by the presence of a median apophysis on the male palp, and by the lack of a cymbial apical groove cradling the tip of embolus, which is newly presented here as a synapomorphy of Hisponinae plus Salticinae.