[13] The genus Paraponera was established by the British entomologist Frederick Smith in 1858, and P. clavata was designated as the type species by monotypy (the creation of a taxonomic group that includes only a single taxon).

[17] This classification was accepted by the entomological community until 1958, when the American entomologist William Brown Jr. synonymised Paraponerini and transferred Paraponera to Ectatommini.

[19][20] Under the present classification, the bullet ant is a member of the genus Paraponera in the tribe Paraponerini, subfamily Paraponerinae.

[21] It was once the sole member of its own genus and tribe, until the extinct Paraponera dieteri was described in 1994 by the entomologist Cesare Baroni Urbani.

The good preservation of the fossil allowed comprehensive comparisons between the two species; the body sculpture of P. dieteri suggests that the genus as a whole exhibits a slow evolutionary rate.

As P. clavata is not found in the Greater Antilles, but rather in Central and South America, this suggests that moister tropical forests covered the island during the Tertiary period.

These ants are found in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama from the north, and in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil from the south.

Two studies in Costa Rica and on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) found about four bullet ant nests per hectare of forest.

Nests were present under Alseis blackiana, Tabernaemontana arborea, Virola sebifera, Guarea guidonia, and Oenocarpus mapora more frequently than would be expected from abundance of these tree species.

[4] Lymphadenopathy, edema, tachycardia, and fresh blood appearing in human victim feces are common symptoms from even a single sting.

[25] Poneratoxin, a paralyzing neurotoxic peptide isolated from the venom, affects voltage-dependent sodium ion channels and blocks the synaptic transmission in the central nervous system.

[10][32] The Sateré-Mawé people of Brazil use intentional bullet ant stings as part of their initiation rites to become warriors or leaders.

[25][33] The ants are first rendered unconscious by submersion in a natural sedative, and then 80 of them are woven into gloves (which resemble large oven mitts) made of vines or leaves, stingers facing inward.

Afterward, the boy's hand and part of his arm are temporarily paralyzed because of the ant venom, and he may shake uncontrollably for days.