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A medium-size (2.8-3.4 cm wingspan) moth with pointed yellow-brown or rusty yellow forewings with brassy or yellow metallic blotches along the outer margins. The basal half of the forewing is mottled pink-brown and light yellow brown with scattered dark scales. The postmedian line is a fine dark line that bends sharply inward near the costa. It is bordered on the outside by a pale pink-brown streak that runs almost straight to the apex, and there is usually a small dark spot or two at the lower end of this line. The remainder of the outer wing area is darker rust. Reniform and orbicular spots are partially outlined in darker scales. Hindwings are much lighter yellow-brown with a fine faint median line and discal spot, darker toward the outer margin. Similar to Diachrysia aeroides, which is darker orange-brown and lacks the light and dark mottling of purpurigera.

The Straight-lined looper ranges from Newfoundland, west across southern Canada to the foothills of Alberta, north to the southern edge of the Boreal Forest, south to Delaware, North Carolina and Illinois in the east and Arizona and New Mexico in the west. In Alberta, it occurs north to at least, the Edmonton area and west to the beginning of the foothills at Gainford and Calgary. It is also present in the wooded portions of the valleys in the Grasslands region.