Mostly cosmopolitan in distribution, it is a pest in Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, the Malay Peninsula and Australasia.

[2] Chrysodeixis eriosoma differs from C. signata in the head, thorax, and forewing having a reddish tinge; abdomen with the lateral and anal tufts often black in the male.

Forewing with much more gilding on the basal, medial, and outer areas; the antemedial line more oblique, the postmedial more oblique and sinuous; the Y mark large, prominent, and golden, the arms often filled in with golden and occasionally joined to the tail.

However, they may be distinguished based on DNA sequencing, pheromones, or geographic origin as C. chalcites is found in the Palearctic and C. eriosoma in the tropical and subtropical regions of eastern Asia and the Pacific islands as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

As for most other plusiine, they lack two pair of prolegs and thus move in a looper fashion, which is somewhat similar to caterpillars in the family Geometridae.