Wingspan about 12 to 15 mm.

Areas where poplar is found.

Adults are on the wing in July, and are occasionally attracted to light.

The larval foodplant is poplar, where the larva feeds within young shoots and buds to begin with, and later within the stem of a leaf stalk.

Occurring locally in the southern half of England and south Wales, it becomes scarcer northwards into Lancashire and beyond, and is virtually unknown in Scotland and Ireland. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as local.

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland. L&R Moth Group status = C (very scarce resident or rare migrant).