Forewing ochreous grey, dappled and striated, and often, especially in the females, suffused with dark fuscous; claviform stigma black-edged; reniform large, filled in with black; orbicular small, round, with a pale ring; fringe rufous; hindwing dull whitish, with fuscous terminal suffusion, broader in female; or with a curved row of dark dashes on veins and no suffusion; a variable species, occurring throughout southern Europe, in Algeria, the Canaries, southern Russia and Asia Minor; — in ab.

the forewing is smooth olive grey, with no or little irroration (sprinkling), the markings concisely red brown: - ab.

Forewing fuscous or pale grey, varied with yellowish; the lines distinct; orbicular stigma small; reniform large, and blackish; claviform black; occurs on the south coast of England and Ireland; — ab.

suffusa Tutt has the whole wing suffused with, blackish grey, except the pale orbicular and a small patch between reniform and outer line; — ab.

nigra Tutt has the forewing unicolorous blackish, the lines and stigmata more intense, the orbicular sometimes visible; — and ab.