The Afrotropical two-eyed orange lungless spider genus Diploglena Purcell, 1904 is revised. Both sexes of the South African type species, D. capensis Purcell, 1904, are redescribed, as well as the females of the Namibian subspecies D. capensis major Lawrence, 1928. The males of this species are described for the first time, and it is elevated to species level as D. major stat. n.; it is also recorded from Botswana and South Africa for the first time. Four new species are described: D. arida sp. n., D. dippenaarae sp. n. and D. proxila sp. n. from South Africa, and D. karooica sp. n. from South Africa and Namibia. All of the species are distributed in arid and semi-arid vegetation types, including desert, Nama and Succulent Karoo, fynbos and dry savannahs.