Wingspan about 4 cm. The wings are white with an iridescent glow, with a dark brown band on the outer edge and a characteristic white spot on the forewing. There is also a rarer brown variant, which is largely light brown with a white spot on the forewings.

A female can lay up to 500 eggs, which are approximately 1 mm in size, laid in clusters of 5 to 20 pieces, as a translucent jelly-like mass.

The pupae are hidden between the leaves and are difficult to find. In the early stage the pupae are green with brown longitudinal stripes, later on towards the end of the pupal stage they turn light brown with a dark pattern.

The females lay their eggs under green, untouched leaves. Depending on conditions such as day length, temperature, and food source, the caterpillars go through five to seven stages of development.
The young larvae feed on parts of the leaf pulp. Adult larvae feed on the entire leaf and can completely defoliate a plant in a short time. A silk remains on the affected plants. The young caterpillars grow into adults within a month. After the caterpillar stage, they pupate in the webs left behind for about two weeks. The last generation of caterpillars overwinters in the host plant.
Because the species hibernates as a larva, larvae are present throughout the growing season of the host plant, meaning that they do not have the opportunity to recover from eating damage. This can cause the plant to die.
The adult moths, which are good flyers hide during the daytime, but they fly at dusk and throughout the whole night. They come to light.

The oligophage larva feeds on the leaves and shoots of Buxus.

The species occurs everywhere where the food plant is available.