The wings are metallic gold with sapphire-blue and ruby-red dots (strigulae) and an indistinct obscurely paler dorsal spot before tornus.

[6] It lives inside the leaves of Quercus (oak) species making a blotch mine with ″spaghetti like″ frass from May to July.

The corridor (or gallery) abruptly widens into a large, full depth, dirty-whitish blotch which is on the leaf margin.

[8][6] The moth has been recorded from most European countries except Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Malta and Slovenia.

[1] The moth was originally named Tinea subpurpurella by Adrian Haworth, from a specimen found in Coomb Wood [sic], England.