This species was first described by Edward Meyrick in 1901 using a male specimen collected by George Hudson in Kaitoke in November and named Cacoecia fervida.

[3][2] George Hudson discussed and illustrated this species in his 1928 book The butterflies and moths of New Zealand under the name Tortrix fervida.

[2] The larvae of this species are approximately 1 cm long when mature, with a brown head and a darker green coloured body.

[6] They have tiny hair like structures to assist in keeping them dry when moving amongst the damp fronds of their host plants.

The female has the fore-wings slightly longer and narrower than the male and all the transverse bands are indistinct, except the one reaching from the costa to the tornus.