The specimen was collected from an undetermined amber mine in fossil-bearing rocks of the Cordillera Septentrional mountains of northern Dominican Republic.

[2] At the time of description, the holotype specimen, number "Do-2215", was preserved in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart amber collections in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

The holotype fossil was first studied by entomologist Maria L. De Andrade of the University of Basle with her 1994 type description of the new species being published in the journal Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde.

The specific epithet spinifer is derived from the Latin word which means "bearing a spine", a reference to the large projection on the top of the petiole.

The two modern species found on the island of Hispaniola, O. bauri and O. insularis are not closely placed to O. spinifer, having different structuring of the heads upper surface.