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A medium-size (3.5-4.0 cm wingspan) moth with two color-forms, dark-brown or grey. The grey form, most common early in the season, is light grey with little mottling, shading to dark brown in the lower half of the forewing, between the antemedian and postmedian lines and in a band from the apex to the outer lower margin. The brown form is dark red-brown over most of the forewing except for a paler grey brown area at the wing base and along the outer margin. Stigma is a curved silver bar, rounded on the outer end, with a short spur on the upper arm. The lower arm continues as the lower half of the antemedian line. Hindwings in both forms are light red-brown, with a distinct narrow postmedian band and shading to a wide dark terminal band. The antennae are simple and boht the sexes are alike.

No Alberta data. Elsewhere the larvae are known to feed on a wide variety of herbaceous plants as well as a few shrubs. In some areas south and east of Alberta, it is a serious pest on cultivated crops such as beets, celery, corn, lettuce, cabbage, carrots and blueberry. Reported non-cultivated hosts include plantain, clover, and Viburnum.

Newfoundland and Labrador west across southern Canada to central British Columbia, south to northern California, Arizona and Texas. It has been found throughout the southern half of Alberta, north in the cultivated parts of the southern Boreal forest and Foothills regions to the Nordegg, Edmonton and Ashmont areas.