In 2012, Adrain and Neo E. B. McAdams treated Aponileus as a distinct genus within Bathyuridae. They also included the species A. glaber, which Christian Poulsen had initially described in the genus Bolbocephalus in 1927. Adrain and McAdams placed five newly described species in Aponilus, namely A. aasei, A. belkaae, A. laikaae, A. strelkaae, and A. ugolekae; they also tentatively assigned a further newly described species to this genus: A.? veterokae. While they believed the "best supported current hypotheses" was to place it in Aponileus, they acknowledged it is "very different from all other species included in the genus" and hence "assign[ed] the species only with question".
