About Costelytra zealandica (White, 1846)
Costelytra zealandica, commonly called the grass grub, is a species of scarab beetle that occurs in forested areas of greater Wellington. It was first formally described in 1846 by British entomologist Adam White, who originally named it Rhisotrogus zealandicus. The specimen White used for this description was collected during the Ross expedition. This beetle feeds on the roots of plants and trees, so it is considered a pest of many farm pastures. Before 2016, the New Zealand grass grub was incorrectly classified as C. zealandica. In 2016, researchers Coca-Abia and Romero-Samper identified consistent differences between the 1846 syntype specimens of White’s C. zealandica and the 1952 species description published by Given. They revised the taxonomy, reassigning Given’s described species to the new name Costelytra giveni, named after Given.
