University of Alberta Museums Search

A medium-size moth (3.5-4.0 cm wingspan). The forewings are rich chestnut brown crossed by numerous wavy bands and lines of darker brown and black in a very unusual and distinctive pattern. There are scattered silver gold metallic scales in the lower parts of the antemedian and postmedian lines, as well as along the basal line and outlining parts of the reniform and orbicular spots. There is also a prominent two-part metallic gold stigma in the center of the forewings; the basal segment an open u-shape and the separate distal part an infilled oval or spot. The antennae are simple and both the sexes are similar. There are no closely similar species.

From Newfoundland west across the wooded portions of Canada to Vancouver Island, south in the east to Maine, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, and in the western mountains south to Colorado and Oregon. In Alberta, it has been collected throughout the wooded areas, from the wooded portions of the valleys of the Grasslands region and the Foothills north through the Boreal Forest to Lake Athabasca and Zama.