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A small to medium sized crambid (14-23 mm wingspan). Forewings light brown with two yellow transverse lines; no longitudinal discal stripe and no white costal and anal stripes; the lower part of the terminal line has a row of eight or nine black dots. Very similar to the widespread Euchromius ocelleus except that, in californicalis, the whitish area between the black dots and the fine ochraceous line internal from it is broad, while in ocelleus it is narrow. Also, the yellow transverse lines tend to be almost straight in californicalis while in ocelleus they are noticeably angled. In addition, the genitalia are different and these have been described and illustrated by Capps (1966). Originally described as Eromene Californicalis by Packard (1873), californicalis was thought to be a synonym of ocelleus by Fernald (1896).

Comes to light. The immature stages are unknown but are probably similar to those of E. ocelleus which have been described by Capps (1966). The related E. ocelleus is of wide distribution and is found in many parts of the world, including the southern United States.

E. californicalis is a North American species which occurs in South Dakota (McDaniel et al 1984); and also in California, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Colorado (Capps 1966). While not reported for Alberta by Bowman (1951), there is a specimen collected in Edmonton by him in the Strickland Museum and Ernest Mengersen has collected it at Olds, Tolman Bridge and Onefour. Both of the latter collections were originally reporterd as E. ocelleus.