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Adults are of a uniform, drab colour. Head and antennae light grey, labial palpi porrect, heavily scaled, light grey. Thorax light grey, metathorax with some brownish scales. Some brownish scales also sprinkled on tegulae. Legs light grey. Uncharacteristically for the genus, forewings do not end with pointed apices. Dorsal surface of forewings light grey sprinkled with various small, faint brownish spots. Two large dark brown spots present in the basal portion of the internal margin and another smaller one present in the apical region. Hindwings are of a uniform light grey with the apices a little darker than the rest of the wing. Hingwing fringes long. Ventral wing surfaces and abdomen light grey. In Alberta this species can be confused with a pale morph of Ypsolopha flavistrigella, however the latter differs from Y. dorsimaculella by the absence of dark spots in the basal region of forewing. It can also be confused with Y. senex, however it lacks the dirty brown forewings as well as the whitish, oblique line in the discal region.