[1][2] The species is native of the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.

[3] Their larger and flatter legs, a trait common with other members of the genus Cephalotes, gives them their gliding abilities and eases their arboreal movement.

[4] The species was first given a description and a classification in 1845 by French entomologist Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville.

Guérin-Méneville erroneously classed the specimen he described as a member of the species Cephalotes pinelii.

Brazilian entomologist Maria de Andrade studied the species once again in 1999 and gave it the name nilpiei, an anagram of pinelii.