[2][3] This centipede is found only in New Zealand and has only 39 pairs of legs, the minimum number recorded in the family Zelanophilidae.

[6] The original description is based on a female holotype found at The Bluff on the South Island of New Zealand.

[4] In 1962, the American myriapodologist Ralph E. Crabill, Jr., of the Smithsonian Institution assigned this species to the genus Tasmanophilus,[7] which Chamberlain originally described in 1920.

[8][2] This species can reach 23 mm in length, and both males and females have 39 pairs of legs.

Pores appear in transverse bands in the posterior portion of each sternite but become progressively smaller and sparser after the 29th segment.