This small moth has a colourful forewing pattern with stripes and dots evident.

It has been hypothesised that the forewing pattern is intended to resemble a jumping spider in order to allow the adult moth to escape predation.

Larvae feed on foliose liverwort species including on Leptoscyphus normalis.

It was described by Edward Meyrick in 1888 using a specimen collected in the Waitākere Ranges in Kauri forest in December and was originally named Palaeomicra doroxena.

Forewings oblong, costa abruptly bent near base, thence gently arched, apex round-pointed, hindmargin straight, very oblique; neuration quite as in P. chalcophanes, but 7 and 8 separate; pale shining golden; two rather narrow oblique coppery-bronze fasciæ from costa near base and at 1⁄3, confluent on inner margin before middle; a straight rather narrow whitish-purplish fascia, margined with coppery-bronze, from middle of costa to inner margin beyond middle; a whitish-purplish black-margined transverse spot from costa at 2⁄3, reaching half across wing; a black semi-annular mark, its extremities touching costa at 4⁄5 and apex, marked with three shining whitish-purplish spots, and including a spot of ground-colour which contains a black costal dot; a semi-oval black anal blotch, not marginal except at extremities, containing three shining whitish-purplish spots near lower edge, and one in a small projection on upper edge: cilia pale golden, with blackish apical, median, and anal spots.