Outstretched, wings measure about 1 inches from tip to tip. The hind wings are white. They feed mainly at night, and like the cutworms, may curl up when disturbed. Small, young caterpillars skeletonize the surface of foliage and the inner surfaces of leaf sheaths while larger ones consume leaves, beginning from the outer edges. Host plants include corn, lawn grasses, legumes such as soybeans, small grains and others.
Adult moths are predominantly pale brown to grayish brown wings.
The center of each forewing is marked with a single small white spot. Adults emerging in early spring mate, disperse and lay eggs on host plants. Females lay clusters of a hundred or more eggs that are covered with fuzzy, gray scales from the female s body. Caterpillars hatch from eggs in about 10 days and begin feeding together, first on the remains of the egg mass and then on the host plant. The pupa is about inch long, reddish brown to black, smooth and hardened.