Gaige (1926) described _Allophryne ruthveni_ as a new genus and species of diminutive bufonid from British Guiana. Noble (1931) considered _A. ruthveni_ to be a toothless relative of _Centrolenella_ and placed the genus in the Hylidae. Gallardo (1965) suggested that _Allophryne_ is a leptodactylid of uncertain affinities. Other references to the monotypic genus have consisted only of a listing of the name or of its inclusion in a key. To date the holotype and one paratype (both females) have been reported (Gaige, 1926), and the family position of the genus remains unsettled.

A male of _Allophryne ruthveni_ is among the amphibians and reptiles collected in southern British Guiana by William A. Bentley in January, 1962, and deposited in the Museum of Natural History at The University of Kansas (KU). Four additional specimens (females) are in the American Museum of Natural History; only one of the latter has definite locality data.