The species is quite variable in appearance, the forewings occurring in various shades of grey or brown, with melanic forms common in parts of its range.

Forewing dull brown; the upper stigmata with pale annuli, the reniform sometimes wholly pale, the orbicular round; claviform absent; hindwing ochreous white, suffused with fuscous towards termen only in male, more broadly in female; in ab.

[Now full species Xestia palaestinensis (Kalchberg, 1897)], while the ground colour is paler, all the markings are more distinct.

It is found in woodland edges, waste ground and suburban habitats with a distribution that covers most of England.

Larva greenish ochreous, with pale dorsal and subdorsal lines edged with dark; between them a row of oblique marks.