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The large characteristic pale orbicular and reniform spots, connected at the bottom to form a large shallow V or W will identify specimens of Stretchia. Plusiaeformis is a mostly grey moth, found in drier sites than the other Alberta species, S. muricina. Muricina replaces plusiaeformis in shaded wooded sites in the grasslands region and foothills, and is slightly smaller and darker red-brown. However, the two species are extremely similar in appearance and males in particular may be impossible to identify with certainty. Females are easily separated as the antennae of plusiaeformis females are strongly serrated with the side branches triangular and shorter than the shaft. In muricina, the female antennae are pectinate with the side branches long and narrow.

New Brunswick west to British Columbia. In Alberta they occur mainly along the southern part of the boreal forest and in the parkland regions, north to the Peace River region and south at least to the Rumsay, Dry Island (Tolman Bridge) Provincial Park and the foothills at Calgary. They are replaced in the grasslands and southern foothills regions by the closely related and very similar S. muricina.