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A medium-size (3.1-3.5 cm wingspan) variable dark chocolate or dark red-brown moth frosted with pale scales. The ground varies from dark chocolate brown to mottled red-brown with black markings. The lower edge of the costa and the cubital vein, the space between the doubled antemedian and post median lines, and the outline of the reniform and orbicular spots are usually marked with contrasting light brown or whitish scales, giving the forewings a frosted look. In some specimens the median area is lighter red-brown. The hindwings are light smoky-brown with a broad diffuse terminal band, darker in females. The forewing fringe is dark, the hindwing fringe is light brown, and the male antennae are rather broadly biserrate. The forewings are broader than in most Euxoa, giving them a characteristic stubby-winged appearance. Males often have a small patch of orange scales at the forewing base (as in tessellata), and can also be recognized by the massive harpes and the stout, asymmetrical saccular extensions. Intrita belongs in the large subgenus Euxoa, characterized by the shape of the male vesica, which is 1-2 times the length of the aedoeagus, bends above the apex of the aedoeagus to project dorsally or to the right, and lacks a prominent twist, coil or loop subbasally. The valves are all bilaterally symmetrical except for the lengths of the saccular extensions. Keys to the subgenera and species and illustrations of the genitalia are provided in Lafontaine 1987.

Intrita occurs across southern Canada from western Ontario west to the Pacific, south to southern Manitoba, central Montana and in the mountains to northern New Mexico, south-central Utah and south-central California. In Alberta it has been collected from the southern edge of the boreal forest to the Red Deer River badlands, west to the upper foothills.