The type species is Manipulator modificaputis, described on the basis of the holotype specimen which is fossilized in a 100-million-year-old piece of Burmese amber, found in a quarry of volcanoclastic mudstone (a sedimentary rock) at Noije Bum in the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar.

M. modificaputis was described by Peter Vršanský, of the Geological Institute SAS of Bratislava, and by Günter Bechly, of the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart.

[1] The cockroach was found to have an elongated neck, a freely rotating head and unexpectedly long legs, which are indicative of a predatory lifestyle.

[3] The authors erected a new family, Manipulatoridae, after examining the specimen on the basis of "the unique habitus with numerous autapomorphies along with several plesiomorphies.

[6] Manipulator was the only member of the family Manipulatoridae until 2022, when the related genus Manipulatoides was described from the same deposit as the type species.