[3][4] Meyrick used two specimens collected in the Botanic Garden and forest in Wellington in January.

; slender and cylindrical; the head is reddish-brown, highly polished; the second segment dark brown and horny; the third segment has two triangular brown horny dorsal plates; the rest of the body dull ochreous, with a very broad slaty-black dorsal band and four conspicuous horny dorsal tubercles; the terminal segment is horny, yellowish-brown; there is a series of conspicuous lateral tubercles and a whitish lateral ridge; all the tubercles emit long yellowish-brown bristles.

Legs dark fuscous, median ring of tibiae and apex of all joints whitish-ochreous.

Forewings moderate, costa gently arched, apex rounded, hindmargin oblique, hardly rounded; dull fuscous, mixed with darker and lighter; the lighter tint appears to form an obscure transverse fascia before middle parallel to hindmargin, and a curved transverse line from 3/4 of costa to before anal angle; a tuft of dark fuscous scales beneath fold at 1/3; an arched dark fuscous mark in disc beyond middle; hindmargin and apical fourth of costa obscurely spotted with darker : cilia fuscous, with a darker line.

[6] Larvae live in silken tubes under the bark of dead branches of its host species.

[8] They have been recorded from dead branches of Aristotelia serrata, Coprosma grandifolia and probably Coprosma robusta, Cordyline australis, Coriaria arborea, Laurelia novae-zelandiae, Litsea calicaris, Melicytus ramiflorus and Olearia rani.