This species was first described by Edward Meyrick in 1916 using a female specimen collected by George Hudson in November in Karori and named Nepticula cypracma.

[2] In 1921 Morris N. Watt described this moth and its lifecycle in detail under the name Nepticula perissopa.

He stated: When young the larva is white in colour, flattened, moniliform; alimentary canal greyish-brown.

Forewings lanceolate; prismatic grey-whitish, irregularly sprinkled with dark grey; basal fourth dark purple-grey; a deep coppery-bronze apical spot mixed with blackish : cilia violet-grey sprinkled with black.

Forewings broad, ground-colour whitish with a pale violet reflection in a bright light, irrotated with black scales; at about 2⁄3 the whitish scales predominate slightly so as to form a fairly broad and sometimes quite distinct pale transverse bar across wing; the black scales predominate in the terminal 1⁄4 of the wing, and near the apex surround a distinct round spot, black in some lights, golden-brown in others; a similar but smaller spot in centre of wing a little beyond 1⁄2, the light transverse bar before mentioned separating the one from the other.

In some specimens there may be slight evidence of a second light transverse bar across wing to the inner side of the central spot.

A black cilial line; cilia dark grey with violet and reddish reflections.

cypracma can be distinguished from similar species S. ogygia and S. hakekeae as it has wings that are broader and more evenly coloured.

[1][11] Other than the type locality of Wellington, this species or its mines have been collected from Northland, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Whanganui, and Havelock.

The egg is firmly cemented to the leaf, and persists at the commencement of the mine for many weeks filled with frass.

Frass is plentiful, finely granular, black, and in the gallery is deposited in the central three-fourths of the mine.

The last act of the larva is to prepare an outlet at the margin of the blotch, and just within this it constructs its cocoon.

[12][6] As such this moth species inhabits the same habitat as its host plant; coastal, lowland and lower montane shrubland and open forest.