[4] George Hudson illustrated and discussed this species under the name Xanthorhoe cinerearia in 1928 in his book The moths and butterflies of New Zealand.

[6] In 1971 J. S. Dugdale placed this species in the genus Helastia and went on to confirm this placement in his 1988 publication Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa.

[2] The male lectotype specimen collected by Andrew Sinclair in Auckland is held at the Natural History Museum, London.

Near the outer margin, which is rather darker than the ground-colour of the wing, is a slender much-waved whitish striga, and near the middle of the costa is a minute white dot.

[12] Adults have been observed resting on stones, or bare ground, and is very partial to the sides of road cuttings where it sometimes occurs in considerable numbers.