The species was first described by Johann Kaspar Füssli in 1775, and has commonly been placed within the related genus Euproctis.

[2] It is distributed throughout Europe to the Urals, then east across the Palearctic to Siberia[3] and south to India and Sri Lanka.

All parts of the adults are pure white, apart from a bright yellow tip to the abdomen (larger in the female) and a small black or brown tornal mark on the forewing of the male.

It usually feeds on trees and shrubs such as alder, apple, birch, blackcurrant, blackthorn, cherry, chestnut, hawthorn, oak, rowan and sallow.

The larvae disperse soon after emerging from the eggs, which are covered with the anal wool of the female, hibernate singly and pupate at the beginning of June.