[1] It is a smaller and similar New Zealand scarab beetle species to Pericoptus truncatus.

The adult beetle is nocturnal and obtains the size of approximately 16 – 22 mm in length.

It normally spends the daylight hours buried under sand or vegetation such as Marram grass or driftwood.

[1] This species was originally described by Adam White and named Cheiroplatys punctatus in The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Erebus & HMS Terror in 1846 from a specimen collected by Percy William Earl and obtained from him during the Ross expedition.

[4][5] The type specimen for this species was collected in Waikouaiti[6] and is held at the Natural History Museum, London.