Recognition of a fossil previously identified as a “large Cretaceous beetle” as a glypheid lobster permits the definition of a new species, Glyphea wiffenae. The specimen was collected from the richly fossiliferous, Upper Cretaceous Maungataniwa Sandstone in eastern North Island, New Zealand. Several other fossil decapods with high southern latitude affinities have been described previously from the unit, supporting the placement of the Zealandia region within the Weddellian Biotic Province. This is only the fourth glypheid known from New Zealand and the first Cretaceous occurrence of the genus in the country.