The species was first described by
Ron Scarlett as
Rallus hodgeni in 1955.
Storrs L. Olson transferred it into the genus
Gallinula, subgenus
Tribonyx, in 1975 and changed its specific epithet to
hodgenorum in 1986. It has since been thought to have been closely related to the black-tailed native-hen (
Tribonyx ventralis) and the Tasmanian native-hen (
Tribonyx mortierii), being placed in the same genus. In a 2025 analysis using a molecular phylogeny, it was found that the species is a member of the crake genus
Porzana, with the analysis recovering it as sister to the
Australian crake (
Porzana fluminea). It is only known from
subfossil material of which the youngest
Māori midden record is from the 18th century. Hundreds of bones have been unearthed at
Pyramid Valley in the
South Island, at
Lake Poukawa in the
North Island, and several other sites, indicating that it was once widespread in New Zealand except on the
Chatham Islands. The main reasons for its extinction are likely to have been predation by the
Pacific rat and hunting by human settlers. ==References==