[1][4][10] Dubatolov published an article in 1997 in which he mentioned doubting the taxonomic distinctiveness of G. lugens from G. rossii, based on the identical wing pattern and the morphology of the genitalia.

[5][11] It is most likely to be confused in British Columbia with Polia richardsoni, which has wings of a similar colour and is in flight at the same month as this moth.

[22] The two species are sympatric in Arctic areas in northern Canada[6][21][22] and the Canadian archipelago,[11][22][23] and on Wrangel Island in Russia.

Alpine populations occur in Maine (at the top of Mount Katahdin),[1][6] in the White Mountains of New Hampshire,[1][6][16] Wyoming and Colorado.

[6] In Canada it is known from Labrador,[1][6][16] Yukon (far northern coast and the Richardson Mountains), Northwest Territories (North Slave Region, Fort Smith, Ulukhaktok), Mackenzie County in far northern Alberta, northern Manitoba (outside the town of Churchill), British Columbia (Pink Mountain[6] and the north)[16] and Nunavut (Somerset Island,[11] Bylot Island, north to coasts on central Ellesmere Island).

[6] It has been recorded from northernmost Alaska in Point Barrow, along the Meade River and elsewhere in Alaska North Slope, and southwards in Lake and Peninsula, the Darby Mountains, the city of Fairbanks, and alpine areas in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

[6] G. rossii lugens, sometimes considered a synonym of the previous subspecies, occurs in Russia from the Siberian Arctic from the northern Urals and the Yamal Peninsula eastwards to the Chukchi Peninsula, north to the Arctic Ocean[1][15] and on Wrangel Island.

It has been recorded at altitudes of 1,561 m in Coös County, New Hampshire, at 800 m in the Richardson Mountains, Yukon, Canada, and at 300 m in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia.

[16] On Somerset Island in Nunavut the moths and their caterpillars would appear in large numbers for one or two days in June.

[5] In the mountains of Hokkaido females of this species do fly; in this area they lay eggs on upright, woody plant stems.

[5][15] Vladimir Dubatolov was able to rear a female from eastern Yakutia, and subsequently from northwestern Chukotka, without a male present from its emergence from its cocoon, and both times the moths laid eggs which hatched into viable caterpillars.

[15] The caterpillars can be exposed to subzero temperatures, in which they freeze solid, but when brought back indoors, many start moving around again as soon as they thaw.

These were repeatedly frozen and thawed through the winter; after four such cycles two survived to pupate, and of those one cocoon was full of flies whilst the other developed into a fully formed adult moth.

[11] The caterpillars feed on Saxifraga tricuspidata, S. oppositifolia, Salix arctica,[1] Dryas[16] and possibly also Potentilla.

[11] Ross observed many of the caterpillars parasitised by a species of ichneumonid wasp and a type of fly in the Canadian archipelago.

On Ellesmere Island, where this moth was found to be sympatric with the closely related G. groenlandica, Chetogena gelida only attacked G. rossii, whereas the new species Exorista thula was only hosted by G.

[24] In 1832 it was recorded as common on the beach of Fury Bay of Somerset Island, Nunavut, with about a hundred specimens of caterpillars and moths collected on 16 June.