The moth became extinct as a breeding species in Great Britain by the 1960s with post-war changes to forestry, such as when for example, the larval foodplants aspen and poplar were cleared in Orlestone Forest, Kent to make way for conifers.

[3] Forewing whitish ochreous, irrorated with pale or dark grey, sometimes with a yellow tinge; inner and outer lines blackish, dentate, double; median and subterminal lines blackish, dentate; reniform stigma with black centre and outline; beneath it a pale yellowish diamond-shaped spot outlined with moerens.

moerens Fuchs has the forewing more or less strongly suffused throughout with blackish grey, obscuring the markings; — the form gaudens Stgr.

contigua Schultz the pale spot below the reniform stigma is elongated outwards to touch the outer line, often, as well as the outer line itself, strongly yellow-tinged, especially noticeable in examples with the ground colour dark; -angustata Schultz is distinguished by the narrowness of the blue band of the hindwing; — the ab.

Schultz also records an instance of albinism in the forewings, where the grey scales throughout have become white, and the black lines brownish yellow, the hindwings remaining unaltered.