Wingspan 13 to 18 mm. A well marked moth with reddish brown patterning and a broad pale blotch.

This species can be found on open uncultivated and waste ground and similar habitats, especially where ragwort is present.

The moths are bivoltine in the south, flying from May to July and again from late July to September. In Scotland there is one generation, in June and July. The moths can sometimes be found at rest on the foodplant by day.

The foodplant is ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), the larvae feeding internally in the stems or roots.

Found throughout much of the British Isles, though it is more local in Scotland. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as common.

It appears to be uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland, where there are few records. L&R Moth Group status = D (rare or rarely recorded).