By 2010, the genus Scrobipalpa contained over 300 recognized species, distributed throughout the Palearctic realm. That year, Oleksiy Bidzilya and Houhun Li described an additional thirteen from China, noting that Scrobipalpa had never been specially studied in the country. In 2019, the pair described an additional nine Chinese species, including Scrobipalpa septentrionalis. Its name comes from the Latin word for "northern", as it is found in the northern part of China. The type specimen, a male, was taken from Yuanyichang, Zhongning County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
