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A medium-size (3.0-3.5 cm. wingspan) moth with pale grey (sometimes with a pinkbrown tint) forewings and dark hindwings. The forewing pattern is unusual and unmistakable. A wide, dirty white swath runs in an arc from the wing base along the leading edge to about mid-wing, with the area below this grey-brown. The outer half of the forewing has a series of narrow wavy bands of black, dark grey-brown, and brown shading into a broad subterminal pale grey band and a narrow blackish terminal band followed by fine pale and dark grey bands. Hindwings are dark smoky brown, faintly banded and slightly darkening toward the outer margin. The antennae are simple, and both the sexes are similar.

From Newfoundland west across the southern boreal forest to central and northern Alberta, south to Maryland, Kentucky and North Carolina. In Alberta, it has been collected in the Boreal forest in the eastern half of the province, from the Edmonton area north to Lake Athabasca.