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A medium-size (3.4-3.6 cm. wingspan) grey moth with yellow hindwings. The forewings are dark ash-grey, except for the area between the antemedian and postmedian lines below the stigma, which is black. Hindwings are bright yellow, with a broad black terminal band. The large hair tuft on the thorax is mostly grey. Antennae are simple and both the sexes are similar. Orophila is very similar to S. borea and S. diasema. S. diasema has buff, not yellow hindwings. S. borea has more brown in the forewings, a large red-brown (not grey) thoracic hair tuft and a shallow-U-shaped silver stigma with a prominent extension or satellite spot (a deep-U in orophila, with a sharp angle or small hook but no extensions or satellites spot). They can also be separated using genitalic characters. A number of smaller Syngrapha species (ignea, microgamma, alticola and montana) also have yellow hindwings, but the forewing color and stigma shape will separate orophila from these.

Syngrapha orophila has a limited western range. It has been found from extreme northern British Columbia and the Queen Charlotte Islands, south and east to southern Oregon, western Wyoming and Montana and western Alberta. In Alberta, it has been collected in the mountains from Jasper to the Crow's Nest Pass area.