It is found in North America, including Wisconsin,[3]: 23  New York, Minnesota and eastern Canada, with imperiled or critically imperiled populations in Maryland and Indiana, respectively, and a vulnerable population in New Jersey.

[6] The eggs hatch after eight or nine days and the larvae eat the ovary of their floret before ballooning away on self-spun silk threads.

[6] By the third instar they begin to consume maturing grain in the flower heads of the wild rice.

[6] Starting in September the larvae, now in the sixth or seventh instar, will either bury themselves in soil[6] or will have already bored themselves into the rice stalks,[5] where they overwinter before emerging in mid-spring to feed, moult into the eighth instar and subsequently pupate.

[5][6] The larva is known as the most serious insect pest of cultivated wild rice in Minnesota,[2] and perhaps the entire Upper Midwest of the United States.