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A medium-size (3.4-3.6 cm wingspan) broad-winged powdery grey or grey-brown moth. The FW varies considerably, from a pale grey with dark brown-black basal, median and sub-terminal banding, to being more or less uniformly suffused with dark sooty brown scales. The ST line often has a dark red-brown outer edging, and there is a contrasting pale yellowish or buff lunule on the outer edge of the reniform in both forms. The HW is a dark yellow-brown, paler than the FW, crossed by a faint doubled basal band, a straight median line and a fine scalloped terminal line. The HW patterning is unusual in noctuid moths other than the genus Zale, and resembles certain Geometrids, such as Pero sp.. This little Zale is quite variable in appearance, but differs from other Alberta Zale in its sooty grey or light grey coloration (rich browns in the others). Alberta Z. duplicata belong to ssp. largera, which are larger and paler with more grey than black scaling than in the nominate subspecies.

There is a single annual brood, with adults flying in the spring. The larvae are solitary defoliators of pines. They overwinter in the pupal stage. The larvae (illustrated in color in Wong and Ives, 1988) are reported to be extremely variable in color, with forms ranging from grey, reddish brown to whitish with darker markings (Wong and Ives, 1988).

NS west across Canada to Vancouver Island; north to the mouth of the Skeena River in BC and the Lake Athabasca region in AB, south in the western mountains. Found throughout the foothills, mountains and boreal forest region (including the Cypress Hills) in Alberta, north to Colin-Cornwalll Wildland Park.