Wingspan 18–30 mm. Ground color ochre-brown to pinkish-brown, varying in intensity. White transverse bands, the first curved, the second very sinuous, base of forewing as well as distal area purplish brown, hindwings whitish gray.

The adult female lays about 200 – 400 eggs laid in piles of grain or accumulations of plants. They hatches after a few days.

The larval stage takes as little as 6 weeks. It is cream-colored and hairless.

The larvae spin tough silk tubes or gallery that are coated or mixed with food particles, firmly attached to a structure. They stay in these tubes and feed from the open ends. When fully developed, the larvae leave these tubes and spin silken cocoons in which they pupate.
They rest characteristically with the tip of the abdomen curved up at right-angles to the body. The adults are active at night and comes occasionally to light and sugar. Rarely seen outside his preferred habitat such as warehouses and other grainstores.

The phytophagous larvae live on stored products like stored grain, flour, corn meal and other milled grain products, household foodstuffs and dead or wilted plant material.

It inhabits homes, bakeries, silos, haystacks, grain stores, barns etc...