[3] Five species are currently recognized in the genus, of which two, P. bequaerti and P. gabonensis, are widely distributed in the Afrotropical forest zone and are usually collected in leaf litter samples and pitfall traps.

Phrynoponera species are not generally considered to be termitophagous, but their actual diet remains unknown, so termites may form a part of it.

Belshaw & Bolton (1994) recorded the two species that occur in Ghana (P. bequaerti, P. gabonensis) as comprising only 0.08% of individuals in the leaf litter ant fauna.

A couple of years later Wheeler (1922) presented a formal description of the genus, a synopsis of newly discovered material from the Democratic Republic of Congo, mostly infraspecific taxa, and notes on a few previously described forms.

The description of the genus that Wheeler (1922) presented was adequate for its time, but superficial by modern standards and mistaken in several characters.