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A medium-size moth (3.0-3.3 cm wingspan). The forewings are dark grey or grey-brown with the lower half of the median area blackish. There is a thin U-shaped silver stigma with a short projection outward from the bottom of the U. Hindwings are pale buff or yellow-brown with a broad dark terminal band. Very similar to S. borea and S. orophila, but those species have yellow instead of buff or yellow-brown hindwings. There is also often a faint median line in diasema, lacking in similar species. The antennae are simple and both the sexes are similar.

Holoarctic. Northern Fennoscandia to Siberia, across Arctic and subarctic. In North America, it has been collected across the arctic and subarctic from Labrador to Central Alaska. It has also been collected on 3 occasions in the subalpine in the Nordegg - Cadomin area of Alberta. These are the only records south of the subarctic.