Due to the poor preservation of these ants, their phylogenetic position among Myrmeciinae is unclear, and no type species has been designated.

Fossils of Myrmeciites were first studied and described by Bruce Archibald, Stefan Cover and Corrie Moreau of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[2] Archibald and colleagues classified Myrmeciites as incertae sedis (Latin for "of uncertain placement") within the ant subfamily Myrmeciinae, as the specimens are too poorly preserved to be assigned to any tribe.

[5] However, in a 2008 paper, Cesare Baroni Urbani of the University of Basel, Switzerland, classified Myrmeciites as incertae sedis within the insect order Hymenoptera (which comprises the sawflies, wasps, bees and ants) because the critical characters used to identify Myrmeciinae ants, or even the family Formicidae cannot be carried out on Myrmeciites.

[7] Archibald, Cover, and Moreau erected the form genus as an encompassing category for all fossil ants which, while belonging to the subfamily Myrmeciinae, lack details needed for placement in other described genera.

As Myrmeciites is a form genus it does not have a designated type species per the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

The incomplete specimen numbered UCCIPR L-18 F-974, is currently preserved in the paleontology collections housed at the Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia.

Archibald, Cover, and Moreau coined the specific epithet "herculeanus" from the Latin name "Hercules" in reference to the notably sturdy and large morphology of the type specimen, and after the divine hero Heracles in Greek mythology, who was the son of Zeus and Alcmene.

Due to the incomplete nature of the specimen and position of the preserved portions, the gender is not identifiable, though the presence of wings indicates it to be a reproductive adult.

The small size of the specimen, with a fore-wing length of approximately 12 millimetres (0.47 in), separates this species from other members of the British Columbia Myrmeciinae.

The type locality for the species, near the Horsefly River, was the basis for Archibald, Cover and Moreau choosing the specific epithet tabanifluviensis, combined with the horsefly genus name Tabanus, the Latin word fluvius meaning "river" and the sufix -ensis meaning "origin" or "place".

The generally robust nature of the specimen excludes it from the genus Avitomyrmex, but the details needed for placement between the genera Ypresiomyrma and Macabeemyrma are not present.

The Stonerose Interpretive Center specimen "SR 05-03-01" is a possible queen or worker which would have been an estimated 1.5 centimetres (15 mm) long in life.

[14] Archibald and colleagues suggested that the behavioural habits for Myrmeciites ants, like that of other extinct Myrmeciinae taxa, may have been similar to its extant relatives.

"Bulldog Ants of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands and History of the Subfamily (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmeciinae)" (PDF).