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A medium-size (3.3-3.5 cm wingspan) moth with dull grey forewings and white hindwings. The head, thorax and abdomen are grey; the thorax is streaked with darker and lighter grey lines adjacent to the tegulae. The forewings have a prominent black basal streak, and a less distinct thin one in the discal cell. There is a pair of short, black offset streaks marking the upper part of the subterminal line and another pair on the lower half, with the ground basad of both paler than the rest of the wing. The other normal lines and spots are absent, except for some pale scaling at the end of the cell where the reniform would be. The terminal line is a series of short black streaks between the veins, and the fringe is mostly grey. The hindwings are shining white, with the veins finely marked with grey-brown scales; the fringe is white with a scattering of grey. Rhizagrotis albalis has a similar pattern, but with more black scaling in the ground giving a much darker, streakier appearance than the smoother grey ground of cloanthoides. Rhizagrotis is currently placed in the noctuid subfamily Amphipyrinae.

From southern Alberta south and west to at least Colorado, Utah and southern California. Cloanthoides has been collected in southern Alberta north to the lower South Saskatchewan River valley near the Saskatchewan border and the Red Deer River at Tolman Bridge