Adults can be found on the wing during the months of March to January but mainly occur during New Zealand's late autumn, winter, and spring.

[9]Butler originally described this species as follows: Primaries above rich chocolate-brown shot with purple; the central area limited by two undulated squamose lines of white and fulvous scales, a third similar but less distinct line across the base; a semicircular blackish spot edged with whitish near the end of the cell, its outer edge, together with a portion of the outer undulated line, indicating the reniform spot, its inner edge united at the extremity to an oblique black-edged whitish dash which replaces the orbicular spot; an indistinct series of black marginal dots; secondaries chocolate-brown becoming pale brown towards the base; fringe pale brown intersected by a darker line; head, collar, and centre of thorax rich chocolate-brown edged with fulvous scales; first joint of palpi tipped with fulvous; tegulae dark brown with a sericeous slaty-grey lustre; abdomen chocolate-brown with pale basal tufts; under surface pale sericeous red-brown with darker margins and fringe; primaries with whitish interno-basal area; secondaries with a lunule at the end of the cell and a bisinuated discal series of spots black; body below darker than the wings, chocolate-brown.

The forewings are rich, glossy reddish-brown with several scattered whitish scales; there is a distinct yellow mark on the costa at about one-fourth, forming the beginning of a broken transverse line; the orbicular is small, round and yellowish; the reniform is small, crescentic and yellowish, the space between the orbicular and the reniform is very dark blackish-brown; beyond the reniform there is a conspicuous white mark on the costa forming the beginning of a second broken transverse line; a third shaded line is situated near the termen.

[8] The larvae of this species pupate in a silken cocoon on moss covered ground or alternatively within gaps in bark.

[9][8] Adults can be found on the wing during the months of March to January but mainly occur during New Zealand's late autumn, winter and spring.

[2][8] 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)