This species was first described by Alfred Philpott in 1924 from specimens collected in the Gouland Downs near the Heaphy Track.

[3] The male holotype specimen is held in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection.

[4] In 2019 Robert Hoare undertook a major review of New Zealand Noctuidae.

Antennae reddish-brown, basally white, in male with short cilla.

Forewings narrow, costa almost straight, apex blunt-pointed, termen rounded, obhque; bright reddish-brown irroraled with whitish; basal area above middle for about 1⁄4 in ♂ clearer white, in ♀ less marked and extending farther along costa; a fine blackish median streak from base to 1⁄3, margined beneath with dark reddish-brown; a broad streak along dorsum suffused with whitish; first line strongly dentate, white, prosteriorly brown-margined, hardly traceable on upper half; an indistinct blackish line in disc above middle; second line hardly distinguishable, blackish-margined, strongly dentate, apex of teeth marked by black dots; subterminal very strongly and irregularly dentate, dentations filled with whitish, anteriorly interruptedly blackish-margined; stigmata almost obsolete, in female orbicular and reniform represented by obscure pinkish blotches : cilla reddish-brown, tips more or less whitish.

[2] It has been hypothesised that larval host species might be within the Empodisma genus as well as possibly Apodasmia similis.