This team based the original description of this species on ten specimens, including an adult female holotype collected in April 1998 from leaf litter in the North Woods of Central Park.

[7] These specimens were collected by a team of researchers led by Liz Johnson and Kefyn Catley of the American Museum of Natural History.

[4][9][8] The team searched through twigs, fungi, and decaying leaves mixed with soil to collect specimens for identification by taxonomists.

These researchers sent a collection of their myriapod specimens to the American entomologist Richard L. Hoffman, who was then the curator of invertebrates at the Virginia Museum of Natural History, for identification.

[7] In 2022, Japanese biologists Sho Tsukamoto, Satoshi Shimano, and Katsuyuki Eguchi described two more species in this genus, N. innuptus and N. oyamensis, based on 88 specimens collected in different seasons from 2017 to 2022 from a broad range of localities on the islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu in Japan.

The original description of N. innuptus is based on a large sample including 71 females and 11 juveniles but no specimens determined to be males.

The species name N. innuptus derives from the word for unmarried in Latin and refers to the absence of males in the large sample of specimens collected, which suggests the possibility of reproduction by parthenogenesis.

[3] A cladistic analysis of the family Mecistocephalidae using morphological features places the genus Nannarrup in the subfamily Arrupinae, along with the genera Arrup, Agnostrup, and Partygarrupius.

[10] Further cladistic analysis of the subfamily Arrupinae based on external morphology places the genus Nannarrup in a clade with Arrup as a closely related sister group.

All other species of Arrup, the closest relatives of Nannarrup, are found in Central Asia, east China, and Japan.

[4][9][8] This theory gained support in 2022 with the description of two Nannarrup species in Japan, suggesting that this genus is native to East Asia.

[3] After introduction to New York City, N. hoffmani established a breeding population in Central Park, as indicated by specimens that not only include juveniles as well as adults but also were collected in different seasons.

[7][4][9] The survival of this introduced species in such a foreign urban environment is especially striking given the population density of New York City and the flow of visitors to Central Park.