The Dutch common name for the moth (Meriansborstel) comes from the butterfly and insect painter Maria Sibylla Merian.

Hindwing greyish yellow, with a transverse band which is slightly more distinct than in the female, and sometimes forms an elbowed anal.

Form juglandis Hübner is divergent in the male, being distinguished by a greyish-white head and thorax (in typical specimens this is dark brown or only slightly lighter), as well as by a whitish basal area of the forewing.

Aberration concolor Staudinger has dark grey forewings, unicolorous or with only traces of transverse lines.

[2] It is found in Europe, Anatolia, Caucasus, western Siberia, eastern Transbaikalia and the Amur basin in south-eastern Russia, Korea, China and northern Vietnam.