The specific name derives from the Latin word pilose, meaning 'covered with soft hair'.[1][5] The ant was first identified in 1858 by British entomologist Frederick Smith in his Catalogue of hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum part VI, under the binomial name Myrmecia pilosula from specimens he collected in Hobart in Tasmania.[6][7] There, Smith described the specimens of a worker, queen and male.[6] The type specimen is located in the British Museum in London.[4] In 1922, American entomologist William Morton Wheeler established the subgenus Halmamyrmecia characterised by its jumping behaviour, of which the jack jumper ant was designated as the type species.[5] However, John Clark later synonymised Halmamyrmecia under the subgenus Promyrmecia in 1927[10] and placed the ant in the subgenus in 1943.[8][11] William Brown synonymised Promyrmecia due to the lack of morphological evidence that would make it distinct from Myrmecia and later placed the jack jumper ant in the genus in 1953.[1][12]