The species is endemic to New Zealand and has been observed in Whangārei, Hawkes Bay, Wellington and Christchurch.

This species was first described by Edward Meyrick in 1905 using a male specimen collected in Wellington by George Hudson and named Strepsicrates dolopaea.

Fore-wings elongate, narrow, costa moderately arched, apex round-pointed, termen sinuate, oblique, rounded beneath, costal fold reaching 2⁄5; pale greyish-ochreous, irrorated witli whitish and strigulated with fuscous, posteriorly more ochreous; an undefined patch of fuscous suffusion extending along costa from 2⁄5 to 4⁄5; margins of ocellus, and an angulated stria beyond it leaden-metallic : cilia pale grey irrorated with whitish.

Hind-wings with 3 and 4 coincident; whitish-grey; cilia grey-whitish, with faint grey subbasal shade.

[4] However in 1930 Meyrick pointed out that further specimens showed that the male has a long expansible blackish hair pencil from base lying in a dorsal fold of hindwings and that this constituted a very distinctive characteristic.