[1] In 1875 Cajetan von Felder and Alois Friedrich Rogenhofer, thinking they were describing a new species, named it Aciptilia patruelis.

[3] Merick described both A. monospilalis and the newly named A. lycosema in greater detail in a later 1885 publication.

[8] In 1988 John S. Dugdale synonymised the two varieties of the species Aciptilus furcatalis originally described by Walker in his 1864 publication into Pterophorus monospilalis.

[10] The male lectotype specimen, collected by D. Bolton in Auckland, is held at the Natural History Museum, London.

[9] The egg of this species is elliptical shaped and coloured a very pale green with a faint honeycomb pattern on the flattened upper surface.

long; gradually tapering posteriorly; dorso-ventrally compressed, the ventral surface flat; 14 apparent segments; 16 legs; spiracles borne at ends of short protuberances.

[8]The pupa is described by Chappell as being 10 mm long and coloured a very pale green with whitish shades on the wings and ventral portions.

The forewings are snow-white with a few brownish-ochreous scales, a blackish dot before the cleft and a minute one on the inner margin before the middle.

[14][15] The larvae of this species are diurnal, slow moving, and feed exposed without external protection.

[12][8] When they pupate the cocoon-less pupa is attached to the host plant leaf via a thread of silk.