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A small (1.7-2.5 cm wingspan) wasp-like diurnal clearwing moth. The antennae, head, thorax, body and legs are mostly blue-black, with some pale yellow and white scaling on the head and palps, the tegulae, and abominal segments one and two (pale yellow laterally) and ventrally on the posterior of segment four. Anal tuft blue-black with a trace of white on the margins. The wings are mostly hyaline, with a faint amber tint in many specimens, very narrow dark margins (including fringe), and a well marked discal bar. Male genitalia has a greatly reduced crista sacculi only slightly visible near the ventral margin of the valve. Males are easily separated from similar S. fatifera by the all black antennae (apical one-third white in fatifera) and from other similar Alberta species by the small size and very narrow wing margins.

Larvae bore beneath the bark of the limbs, trunk and occasionally in the roots of Rosaceae, including cultivated peaches, plums and cherries (Prunus sp.) as well as native cherries (Prunus), Saskatoon (Amelanchier) and others. They apparently prefer parts of the hosts with injuries or abnormalities, such as black-knot fungus knots on chokecherry.