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A medium-size moth (3.1-3.6 cm wingspan) with yellow-tan or fawn forewings and yellow hindwings. The forewings have a large but poorly defined reniform spot usually biordered with dark dots and a curved but incomplete poorly defined and sometimes almost obsolescent median band. The hindwings are pale to bright yellow or yellow-orange, with a large black curved discal mark and a black terminal band containing an oblong yellow spot midway. Very similar to Heliothis phloxiphaga which has forewings with a larger and more prominently marked reniform spot, a darker and more prominent median band sharply angled at the reniform, and white hindwings. There are differences in the genitalia of both sexes of the two species as well.

Northern New York and southern Ontario west to southern Saskatchewan and Alberta south to southern Idaho and northeastern Nevada. The only Alberta definite Alberta record is a specimen in the CNC labeled, “Dunes, Alberta”, collected in 1928 by G.F. Manson.