at the time of description, the holotype specimen, number smf mei 12273 was preserved in the senckenberg research station messel fossil collections. the fossil was first described by gennady dlussky and sonja wedmann in a 2012 paper on the poneromorph ants of messel. in the type description, dlussky and wedmann named the species "p. petrosa", with the specific epithet derived from the greek "petros", which means stone.