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A medium-size (3.5 cm wingspan) moth. Forewings are rusty red-brown, darker brown in the terminal area. The antemedian and postmedian lines are irregular and thin, marked with darker rust scales, and there is a wider dark diffuse median band running from the bottom of the reniform to the lower margin. The orbicular and reniform spots are thinly outlined in dark rust brown scales, and the lower half of the reniform is filled with dark slate grey. The darker terminal area is divided by a rust-red subterminal line, outlined on the distal side by paler rust scales. Hindwings are light grey, with a sharply defined outer band of light rusty yellow, widest along the costa. Sexes are similar. Both the wings, but in particular the forewings, have a shiny reflective sheen. The similar A. bicolorago is paler, more yellow or tan than rust, and has less of the sheen.

Western North America, from south central Saskatchewan west to Alaska and coastal BC, south to at least southwestern Montana and southwestern Colorado. In Alberta, it has been collected in the Aspen Parkland and southern Boreal Forest south to the wooded valleys of the arid grasslands, and throughout the foothills, as well as in the northern Peace River district.