This species was described by Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1879 using two specimens collected in Queenstown by Frederick Hutton and named Phaos huttonii.

[4] George Hudson discussed and illustrated this species in his 1898 publication New Zealand moths and butterflies (Macro-lepidoptera) using the name Metacrias huttonii.

[6] In this publication Hudson used the name Metacrias huttoni to describe the species following George Hampson's use of that spelling in his Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum.

[12] Butler described the species as follows: primaries pale ochraceous, with the borders and veins rather broadly black, a submarginal transverse black line or stripe, or these wings might perhaps better be described as black, with an abbreviated basal dash, a cuneiform discoidal dash, an interno-median longitudinal streak, five subconfluent longitudinal discal dashes, and a submarginal series of small conical spots pale ochraceous; a basal subcostal carmine streak; secondaries bright ochreous, greyish on interno-median area; an oblique black spot on the discocellulars; outer border, to beyond the first median branch, broadly black, uniting with a large subanal marginal black spot, and intersected by an interrupted macular ochreous line close to the margin; fringe ochreous; body black, with sordid whitish fringes to the tegulae; abdomen with ochraceous borders; wings below ochreous with black discocellular spots; outer borders black, intersected by a series of ochreous dots; costal borders dark orange, the primaries with an ill-defined subcostal carmine streak; body black, pectus fringed with pale sericeous hair; tibiae and tarsi of legs ochreous; anterior femora carmine in front; venter bordered and banded with ochreous.

[12] Researchers have used females as lures to take advantage of this behaviour to detect males in new localities.

[14] M. huttoni is a host species for the parasitoid wasps Echthromorpha intricatoria and Cotesia urabae.