Coelostomidia zealandica
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
Coelostomidia zealandica (common name: great giant scale) is a scale insect endemic to New Zealand. The female is notably larger and very different in appearance from the small winged male. Coelostomidia zealandia is found on both the North and South Island of New Zealand.
This is a large scale insect, with the females reaching a length up to 15mm. There are at least three instar stages. This species was described in 1880 by William Maskell as Coelostoma zealandica from specimens collected in Otago on the bark of trees, and Canterbury "buried in the ground and in the chinks of rocks, by the Sumner Road, Lyttelton, interspersed with another curious Coccid, feeding on Muehlenbeckia, a creeping plant growing thereabouts". The new genus name Coelostoma was later found to be already in use, and Cockerell in 1900 proposed the new genus Coelostomidia to replace it. C. zealandica was redescribed by Morrison & Morrison in 1922, who also provided a full diagnosis of Coelostomidia. The type specimens are now housed in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare Research, Auckland.
C. zealandica feeds on... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egmont National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Great Giant Scale sighting in Egmont National Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 153rd most-seen of the 191 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Great Giant Scale in Egmont National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to January, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Great Giant Scale sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Egmont National Park, in our data
Egmont National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Great Giant Scale sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Hemiptera
The closest relatives of the Great Giant Scale that you can see in Egmont National Park (order Hemiptera, True Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids, and allies) are Torpedo Bug (about 20%), Passionvine Hopper (about 20%) and Pseudaphronella jactator (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Giant Scale is recorded against all the insects logged in Egmont National Park (5 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
