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A small (2.0-2.6 cm wingspan) narrow-winged moth with dull reddish or brownish-grey forewings and paler hindwings. The forewings have a prominent, dark oblique median band that stops well before the costa, and a dark, bar-shaped reniform. The antemedian and postmedian lines are fine, and the later is curved. There is a yellow or orange patch on the outer margin below the apex, and a dark terminal line and grey fringe. The hindwings are pale, crossed by fine median and submedian bands, and darkening toward the margin and in particular in the region just before the anal angle. The palps are massive, in the male folded back up and over the head and thorax, and containing a large expansible yellowish tuft. The antennae are simple and both of the sexes are similar.

Adults are nocturnal and come to lights and sugar baits. They have a long flight period, and it is possible that more than one brood annually. The larvae feed on the foliage of a wide variety of trees and shrubs as solitary defoliators, often within a silk webbing.

No Alberta data available. Elsewhere in Canada, recorded from a wide variety of trees and shrubs, but mainly confer trees, in particular Balsam fir (Abies balsamifera) and White spruce (Picea glauca). See Prentice, 1962 or Handfield, 1999 for lists of recorded hosts.