It is therefore presumed that the male lectotype specimen, held at the Natural History Museum, London, was collected in Nelson.

Fore wings with a few black speckles; costa with black points and with some gilded yellow marks; of these the second forms a broad oblique streak, which extends to the disk and is much more conspicuous than the others; fringe yellow; under side and hind wings blackish purple.

[2][4] In 1923 Alfred Philpott published a paper where he attempted to find differences between the species within the Sabatinca genus by studying the venation of the hindwings.

The venation of the hindwings of S. incongruella were similar in appearance to the majority of species within the genus as they had a "recurrent" vein.

[3] This species is endemic to New Zealand and is only found in the northern part of the South Island, from the west of Picton and north of Reefton.