The globular, shiny black eggs are broadcast by the female as she hovers over the food plant.

[1][2] When they hatch the larvae find their foodplant, bore into the root and are 25 to 30 mm long when fully fed.

They have an orange-brown head and a shiny white body with brownish-orange dorsal plates on the thoracic segments; spiracles are black.

[1][3] The larvae pupate in silken cocoons near the surface of the soil; pupa are elongated with hooked bristles on the abdominal segments.

[1] Originally placed in the genus Hepialus – from the Greek; hēpialos – means a fever, as in 'the fitful, alternating flight' of the moth.