It was established by Eugene G. Munroe in 1964 as a replacement name for Nagia Walker, 1866, a name that was preoccupied by Nagia Walker, 1858 in the Lepidoptera family Erebidae.

The six species of Nagiella are distributed in East and Southeast Asia as well as the Indian subcontinent.

[1] The caterpillars of Nagiella inferior have been recorded on Coffea liberica in the Rubiaceae family.

[2] In the past, the genus was considered a synonym of Pleuroptya, until in 2017 a taxonomic revision showed that Nagiella is not identical with Pleuroptya and was reinstated as a valid genus.

[6] The type species, Nagia desmialis Walker, 1865, is now considered a synonym of Nagiella quadrimaculalis (Kollar & Redtenbacher, 1844), which was described earlier and therefore has priority over the younger name.