It is distinguished by its small flower with the calli only on the outer one-fifth of the labellum.

[3][4] The Esperance duck orchid was first formally described in 2006 by Stephen Hopper and Andrew Brown who gave it the name Paracaleana parvula.

The description was published in Australian Systematic Botany from a specimen collected in the Cape Arid National Park.

[1][6] The specific epithet (parvula) is the diminutive form of the Latin word parvus meaning "little"[7] hence "rather little", referring to the small size of the flower compared to others in the genus.

[4] Caleana parvula grows in sandy soil in shrubland between Condingup and Israelite Bay in the Esperance Plains biogeographic region.