This species prefers grassy or tussock covered mountain side slopes as habitat.

[5] George Hudson discussed the species in his 1898 volume New Zealand moths and butterflies and referred to it as Xanthorhoe cataphracta.

[2] The female lectotype, collected at Arthur's Pass, is held at the Natural History Museum, London.

[2] Hudson described the species as follows: The fore-wings are dull yellowish-brown, with numerous slightly waved oblique black and white transverse bands; one very broad white band is situated near the middle, and another at about three-fourths; there is a broad longitudinal reddish-brown line on the costal edge, in which the transverse lines almost disappear; there is also a pale, somewhat triangular, area at the apex.

[6] Specimens were also collected in tussock country near the Homer saddle by George Howes.