The forewing ground colour is cream to straw brown.The forewing has scattered black scales and the veins are widely marked whitish.There is a distinctive dark stain on dorsal side of the discal cell (and on the upper edge of the angled median streak).The outer cross-line is broken by projections of the median streak.

Larva dull grey-greenish to purplish-brown; spots large, darker; head dark brown or blackish.

[3][4] The caterpillars feed mainly on Poaceae grasses, such as meadow-grass species (Poa) or sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina) in silken galleries.

[5] Apart from the junior synonyms listed, two scientific names have been misapplied to this species in the past:[1] In turn, the present species' scientific name was erroneously used for the related moths Pediasia contaminella (by Jacob Hübner in 1817), Agriphila geniculea (by J.F.

Stephens in 1834 and W. Wood in 1839), Pediasia aridella (by Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1839), and Agriphila brioniella (by Aristide Caradja in 1910 and Alexander Kirilow Drenowski in 1923).