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A medium-size (2.5-3.5 cm wingspan) broad-winged moth with the forewing apex drawn out into prominent a curved hook. The color varies from almost all-yellow forms to two-toned dull pink-brown forms, and the forewings and hindwings are the same color. The yellow form usually has a broad pinkish outer margin and the basal half crossed by fine lines of the same color. The hindwings are yellow, with the basal half marked with pink lines as in the forewings. The darker form is pinkish brown, with both fore and hindwings crossed by a narrow dark median line, which bends sharply inward to the costa just below the apex. Many specimens are intermediate; dark pink brown with a yellow band across the outer half of the wings. Sexes are alike. The only other large Alberta moths with hooked forewing tips are the two related hooktip moths, Drepana arcuata and D. bilineata, both of which have light brown or tan forewings and pale hindwings. The Rose Hooktip is one of only four species in Alberta belonging to the family Drepanidae. They are related to the much larger family Geometridae, from which they be distinguished by the prominent recurved hook on the forewing apex.

Throughout the forested eastern half of North America, west across the wooded parts of southern Canada to extreme eastern British Columbia. In Alberta it has been collected throughout the Boreal forest region, from the Edmonton area north to Lake Athabasca and Zama.