American herpetologist Clifford H. Pope described "Bungarus wanghaotingi" in 1928 from a specimen from southwestern Yunnan Province collected in November, 1926 by a Walter Granger. Naming it for zoological artist Mr. Wang Hao-t'ing, of Beijing, he distinguished it from "B. multicinctus" by its more numerous dorsal bands and from "B. candidus" by its higher ventral scale count. This taxon is also found in Myanmar, in Kachin State, Rakhine State and Sagaing Division. Herpetologist Alan Leviton and colleagues suspect there are further undescribed taxa within the species complex.