It can be confused with similar looking species such as I. subcyprea however I. chlorodonta can be distinguished through differences in colouration of its fore and hind wings as well as the length of the male pectinations.

[3] The holotype specimen used by Hampson was collected in Ngāruawāhia by George Blundell Longstaff and is held by the Natural History Museum, London.

Fore wing bright rufous mixed with purple-grey and some olive-green; subbasal line double, black filled in with purple, dentate, bent inwards to base at vein 1, an oblique white striga beyond it across the cell and an olive-green patch above vein 1; antemedial line black defined on inner side by purple, slightly angled outwards below costa and excurved below the cell; claviform large, defined by black and white above and at extremity; orbicular and reniform large, with brown and green centres and white annuli defined by black, the former rather oblique elliptical, the latter with curved whitish striga in centre; postmedial line black defined on outer side by purple, double at costa, bent outwards below costa, then minutely dentate, incurved below vein 3, some whitish points beyond it on costa; sub-terminal line white with olive-green suffusion before it except towards costa and inner margin and defined on outer side by black, incurved below costa, angled outwards at vein 7 and dentate to termen at veins 4 and 3; a fine waved black terminal line.

[1] There are some species that resemble I. chlorodonta such as I. subcyprea as well as a Westland form, called by Robert Hoare in his 2019 publication, I. skelloni s.l.

[1] I. chlorodonta differs from I. subcyprea as the male of the species has slightly longer pectinations, it has a distinctive lilac-grey to lead grey colour to the antemedian and postmedian lines, green scaling between antemedian and postmedian lines, much darker brown hindwings, and has a paler underside of the hindwings.