The order includes around 2,325 species[2] of obligate insect ectoparasites that produce cellular thalli from two-celled ascospores.

[3] Recently, the genus Herpomyces, traditionally considered a basal member of Laboulbeniales, was transferred to the order Herpomycetales based on molecular phylogenetic data.

Spore transmission can sometimes occur during insect copulation, which may account for the different site specificity sometimes observed in male and female hosts.

Recent molecular phylogenetic work has shown that some taxa are complexes of multiple species segregated by host, for example Hesperomyces virescens.

[7] The classification of the order Laboulbeniales follows Isabelle Tavares (1985) but several taxa in that system are polyphyletic.