[1] At the time of the genus description, the type specimens were residing in the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City.

Analysis of the amber composition indicates it originated as cupressaceous resins which were deposited in lagoons and salt water marshes along the Cretaceous eastern seaboard.

[1] The type fossils were first studied by paleoentomologists David Grimaldi, Donat Agusti, and James Carpenter of the American Museum.

Grimaldi, Agusti, and Carpenter placed the new genus into the extant ant subfamily Ponerinae, without tribal assignment, based on a slight constriction of the gaster.

Due to the unique combination of morphological features found in Brownimecia, Bolton erected the new subfamily Brownimeciinae for the genus.

Bolton notes that its sickle-like mandibles which lack teeth are not usual for ants and are often associated with dulotic, or slave-making, behavior in extant genera.

The exposure allowed the interior cavity of the fossil to be examined under scanning electron microscope after being coated in a layer of gold.

The mandibles cross each other near their mid-length and the oral surfaces bear approximately thirty short needle-like setae.

All of the alitrunk gland and spiracle orifices are to some degree obscured on the holotype by froths of bubbles that escaped them soon after the worker was entombed in the sap.

[2][1] Due to the unusual morphology of the mandibles, scientists have suggested that Brownimecia may have had a high level of feeding specialization.