Wingspan 12 to 15 mm. The wings may be relatively plain, or have darker and paler mottling. The long, upwardly curved, labial palps of the female protrude from a large tuft of scales, but the shorter palps of the male are concealed in the tuft.

Good photographs required. 

Where the larval host plants occur.

On the wing between June and August.

In May and June, the larvae spin the shoots of Gorse, Broom or Dyer's Greenweed, feeding within.

Distributed throughout much of England, local in Scotland and mostly coastal in Wales and Ireland. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as local.

Infrequently recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland.