The life history of this species is, at 2024, poorly known but the larval host plants are likely mosses, herbs or possibly lichens.

This species was first described by Alfred Philpott in 1915 using four specimens collected in Queenstown in November and was originally named Xanthorhoe plumbea.

Abdomen grey, each segment bearing dorsally a pair of cuneate black marks.

Hindwings rather elongate, termen strongly rounded; fuscous-grey; discal dot and some striae on terminal portion obscurely indicated; an obscure waved black line round termen: cilia white, mixed with grey and with suffused darker bars.

[8] In the North Island it is recorded in the Taupo region; in the South Island it is found in the Nelson, Buller, Marlborough, North Canterbury, Westland, Mackenzie, Dunedin, Central Otago, Otago Lakes and Fiordland areas.