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This is one of three species of Hemaris in Alberta which mimic bumblebees. The Slender Clearwing can be distinguished from H. diffinis by the much broader hindwing margin, and brown as opposed to black bands on the thorax underside. Two characters easily distinguish gracilis from thysbe: the forewing cell of thysbe is crossed by a line (a vein with dark scaling), whereas this cell is unmarked in H. gracilis. The underside of the abdomen is completely yellow in thysbe, whereas gracilis has two longitudinal red-brown bands.

Adults visit flowers during the day. Overwinters as a pupa underground or among ground litter. Although this species has two broods annually in more southerly parts of its range, it likely has only one in the short summers of the northern boreal forest.

The eastern seaboard of North America, north and west through central Canada to extreme northeastern Alberta. In was added to the Alberta fauna in 2000 when a specimen was collected in the Richardson River Dunes Wildland Park, just south of Lake Athabasca. The recent addition of this species to the Saskatchewan (Hooper 2001) and Alberta faunas are significant extensions of the previously reported range.