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A medium size (approx. 3.0 –3.5 cm wingspan) rusty-orange moth with broad pointed (subfalcate) forewings. “Light ochre yellow, heavily shaded and dusted with rusty orange; the lines (sometimes only the upper half of pm. and dash to apex) defined with white scaling, and costal part of st. space partly frosted with white. Lines about as in propulsata, less deeply waved; hind wing with dark border and traces of a nearly complete pm. line parallel to it.” (Forbes, 1948). Testata has a somewhat glossy appearance that, along with the white scaling on the apical dash and outside the upper pm. line, will separate it from E. propulsata.

Adults are nocturnal and come to light. There is a single annual brood, with adults mid July through mid September, peaking in mid August. Reported larval hosts include poplar, birch, alder, willow, Ribes sp., and Vaccinium. FIDS host plant records for Alberta are predominantly willow (22), and to a lesser extent aspen poplar (7) and alder (1) (Prentice, 1963).

Holarctic. Great Britain and Scandinavia east to Japan. In North America from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island and AK, south in the east to about NJ and in the west to CO. Testata has been collected throughout most of Alberta, from the far north to wooded riparian areas in the southern grasslands, although most records come from mountains and parklands in the southern half of the province.