Its appearance differs from its close relatives such as A. purpurea as it lacks the purple hue that can be seen on the latter species forewings.

[4] Meyrick, in 1911, disagreed with this placement but somewhat doubtfully suggested placing the species in the genus Hypnotype.

B. Hoare undertook a major review of New Zealand Noctuidae and placed it within the genus Austramathes in 2017.

The fore-wings are dull purplish-brown; there is an oblong black mark at the base of the dorsum containing a slender curved white line; the orbicular is rather small, round, margined first with dull white and then with black; the reniform is large, oblong, dull white, margined with pale ochreous towards the base of the wing; there is a conspicuous oblong black mark between the orbicular and reniform stigmata.

[1] Its appearance differs from its close relatives such as A. purpurea as it lacks the purple hue that can be seen on the latter species forewings.

[1] This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: New Zealand moths and butterflies (Macro-lepidoptera), by George Vernon Hudson (1898)