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A medium-sized (3.5-3.9 cm wingspan) long and narrow-winged Euxoa. Forewing ground color varies from dark red-brown or chocolate brown through tan and grey to pale straw yellow, but is usually buff speckled with lighter and darker scales. No contrasting prothoracic collar. The maculation is poorly defined except in dark specimens. The costa, orbicular and reniform often paler and contrasting with the dark ground, the spots with dark grey center and pale outer ring. Subterminal line indistinct, pale. Terminal line a series of thin, dark lines between the veins. Fringe concolorous or nearly so. Hindwings varying from white to smoky brown usually paler towards the base. Discal bar and veins usually marked in darker scales, and fringe white. Male antennae are strongly biserrate, about three times the width of the shaft. The female genitalia are unusual in having a row of long, stout setae along the dorsal margins of the ovipositor lobes. Aurulenta belongs to the subgenus Pleonectopoda, characterized by the prominent twist or subbasal coil in the vesica of the male. There are no characters that can be used to identify females as members of the subgenus. Keys to the subgenus and species are presented in Lafontaine, 1987.