Two missionaries who had arrived in New Zealand on 30 December 1834, William Colenso and R. Wade, walked through the Whau South area in 1838 hoping to find a Māori settlement, but the Pa site on Te Whau point had been abandoned some time before.
It was redescribed under the synonymous name Hemideina gigantea by Colenso (1881), based on a specimen collected 'in a small low wood behind Paihia, Bay of Islands', in 1838.
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It was collected by William Colenso in December 1841, at the precise locality of woods near Poverty Bay in the North Island.