The Plenary Powers of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature selected Colpocephalum zebra Burmeister, 1838 as its type species in the 1950s.

[11][12] Strictly applying the ICZN Code, the type species should have been Liotheum (Colpocephalum) ochraceum, as it was the only available name included in the original circumscription.

[2]: 278 However, in 1906, Louis Georges Neumann designated "Liotheum (Colpocephalum) zebra Nitzsch" as the type species for this taxon instead.

[14][2]: 275, 279  Hopkins also notes that L. (C.) ochraceum is congeneric with Colpocephalum uniseriatum Piaget, 1880, the type species of Actornithophilus, which would further complicate the situation.

The members of the commission who voted affirmatively were, in the order their ballots were received, N. D. Riley, E. M. Hering, W. T. Calman, J. R. Dymond, B. Hankó [hu], P. B. Bonnet, H. E. Vokes, A. do Amaral, J. Pearson, J. C. Bradley, F. Hemming, T. Esaki, H. Lemche, R. Mertens, Á. Cabrera, N. R. Stoll, and H. Boschma.

[34] Adults of this species have also been reported to engage in cannibalism in laboratory colonies, eating their own eggs and up to 80% of their nymphs.