The genus was named by David Page in 1856 for a "small phyllopod, or the larval stage of some larger crustacean" from Silurian deposits of Angus, Scotland (formerly Forfarshire), but it was not until 1882 that B. N. Peach recognized the affinities of this animal to millipedes and named the species K. forfarensis. Peach named another Silurian species, K. obanensis, from Old Red Sandstone deposits from the Scottish island of Kerrera in 1899; John Almond questioned the affinity of this species to Kampecaris in 1985, for several reasons including the presence of 14 segments behind the head. In 1951, B. B. Clarke described a Devonian species, K. dinmorensis, from Dinmore Hill, Herefordshire, England. Another Devonian species, K. tuberculata, was subsequently recognized as being closer to flat-backed millipedes in the group Archipolypoda, and renamed to Palaeodesmus.
