Wingspan 15 to 21 mm. It gets its name from the six yellowish bands on the abdomen and has mostly transparent wings, only edged in scales.

Inhabits various locations where the food plants are present, particularly on calcareous soils including chalk downland, quarries and sea-cliffs.

The day-flying adults are on the wing between June and August.

The foodplants are the bird's-foot trefoils (genus Lotus) or Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), the larvae feeding in the rootstock.

Six-belted Clearwing is distributed mainly in the southern half of Britain and was previously believed to be very uncommon. In a recent survey to determine the status of all macro moths in Britain this species was classified as Nationally Scarce B but the introduction of an effective pheromone lure for this species has shown it to be more common than previously thought.

Previously recorded rather infrequently in Leicestershire and Rutland, but the introduction of an effective pheromone lure for this species has shown it to be more common in our area than previously thought.