The English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan recognised Histiodraco as a distinct genus for the first time in 1914.

In 1914, Regan described a fish collected on the Terra Nova Expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott under the name Dolloidraco velifer, with the type locality given as McMurdo Sound.

[2] The generic name is a compound of histion, which means "sail", and draco, which is likely a reference to the genus Dolloidraco, to which Regan had originally assigned this species and then proposed this genus shortly after describing its sole member.

[1] Histiodraco appears more closely related to Pogonophryne than to Artedidraco but differs on its less depressed head and high second dorsal fin.

[4] It is a bathydemersal species which is found at depths of 210 to 667 m (689 to 2,188 ft)[1] in the sublittoral and continental shelf.