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A relatively large (3.5-4.3 cm wingspan) tan, yellow-brown to orange geometrid with angular wings with falcate tips. Markings are confined to a small dark discal dot on each forewing, a narrow antemedian line crossing the forewing only and a postmedian line crossing both the fore- and hindwings. These lines are pale yellow in males, grey in females. Similar to S. juberaria, which has brown not grey cross-lines. S. pallulata has much wider dark cross-lines, usually bordered distally with white. S. cervinaria is the only spring-summer flying Synaxis in Canada; the others all fly in fall.

Adults are nocturnal, come to light and fly in spring and summer. Larvae are twig mimics and range in color from green-brown to red-orange. The larva is described by McGuffin (op. cit.) and is illustrated in color by Miller and Hammond (op. cit).

There is a single recent (2006) specimen record from Waterton Lakes National Park in May. Valenti et al (op. cit) determined that populations on manzanita in northern California were maintained at very low levels by the combined efforts of pathogens and predators, which together reduced the population by about 99%.

Reported larval hosts include a wide variety of deciduous trees and shrubs, including Ceanothus, willow, cascara, oak, poplar, cherry, manzanita and arbutus (McGuffin, 1987; Miller and Hammond, 2003; Valenti et al, 1998.).

Synaxis cervinaria has a more southern distribution in Canada than does either S. jubararia and pallulata, and in spite of being a generalist on deciduous trees and shrubs, was apparently not detected by the FIDS surveys.