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A medium-size rather broad-winged (3.5- 3.7 cm wingspan) grey or brown-grey moth with fuscous hindwings. Females tend to be darker than males. The antemedian, postmedian and subterminal lines and the large orbicular and reniform spots are light grey and stand out against the darker grey ground. The area between the upper antemedian line and the orbicular spot and the area between the orbicular and reniform spots is sharply contrasting black. Overall the scaling is smooth and even and results in n attractive if not colorful moth.

Southern Yukon west to Newfoundland, in the west south in the mountains to northern New Mexico. In Alberta it occurs throughout the boreal forest and mountains; it also occurs in wooded and shrubby areas of the badlands along the full length of the Red Deer River.

Until recently, Trichosilia mollis was treated as a member of the genus Agrotis, and was listed as such in Hodges et al checklist as #10644. The genus was revised by Lafontaine & Kononenko, 1986. (Can. Ent. 118: 1079-1113). I have followed Rings et al (1992) in assigning a new number that places it where it belongs taxonomically. Trichosilia is most closely related to the genus Feltia. Only two species, T. mollis and T. nigrita, occur in AB; several others are confined to the Beringian region of the YT and AK or to the south and east of us. Mollis is nocturnal and comes readily to light. I have encountered it in sandy jackpine barrens near Redwater, AB as well as in similar habitat in the AB foothills.