Apache / PHP server delaying for a minute before responding

Turns out it was an issue with /etc/hosts - for whatever reason OSX Lion 10.7.2 has issues with putting multiple domains on the same line, for example:

127.0.0.1    mylocalsite.com anotherlocalsite.com

versus:

127.0.0.1    mylocalsite.com
127.0.0.1    anotherlocalsite.com

By putting them on the same line, pinging anotherlocalsite.com would take a minute to resolve, whereas mylocalsite.com would instantly resolve to 127.0.0.1. There's discussions on various issues with DNS and the hosts file on OSX Lion such as:

http://www.justincarmony.com/blog/2011/07/27/mac-os-x-lion-etc-hosts-bugs-and-dns-resolution/

If anyone knows why this particular problem is happening would be interested to know, but at least the problem is now solved!