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A small to medium-sized (2.5-3.3 cm. wingspan) round-winged dark grey and brown moth. The normal lines are darker and somewhat diffuse, with the antemedian line straight and the postmedian line concave in two waves. The basal and median areas have yellowish or buff shading and few to many raised black scales (these scales absent in all other Gluphisia sp.). The hindwings are dark like the forewings. The male antennae are broadly pectinate, narrowly so in female. All other Gluphisia sp. fly only in spring, and are significantly larger. Specimens from the boreal forest and parklands are darker and contrasting; those from the valleys of the arid plains are much paler and less contrasting.

From Nova Scotia west to Vancouver Island, north to Hudson's Bay, south to Georgia and California. Found throughout Alberta wherever poplars occur, from the river valleys of the arid plains north through the Boreal forest, and into the mountains.