This species was first described by Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1879 using specimens collected by Frederick Hutton in Dunedin and given the name Phibalapteryx anguligera.

[1][2] George Vernon Hudson discussed and illustrated this species in his 1898 book as a synonym of Hydriomena gobiata.

[1] The holotype specimen is held at the Natural History Museum, London.

[1] Butler described the adult moths of the species as follows: ♀ More sandy in coloration than P. gobiata, with a distinct oblique olivaceous brown central belt, limited by the discal blackish line, which is widely zigzag, but diverging from this line above the lower radial, whence it runs transversely but irregularly to the costal margin; a large dusky discocellular spot; veins on the disc white dotted with black as usual; secondaries with the margin rather more strongly dentated than in P. gohiata, the inner blackish line represented by a grey band; outer border limited by a dusky line; a slender black marginal line; primaries below with a lakey tint; the discocellular dot black; a transverse irregular discal line answering to that of the upper surface; secondaries pale sandy-whitish, the basal half crossed by five dusky lines; disc crossed by a darker sandy nebula.

[5] Hudson stated that the adult moths fed on the flowers of Veronica salicifolia.