The expansion of the wings, in Philampelus vitis, is about four inches; head, antennæ, and thorax dark flesh-coloured, the latter with a broad central stripe of olive-brown and a shorter one on each side, the central one sometimes prolonged over the vertex of the head. Anterior wings olive-brown, with various flesh-coloured bars and stripes; two conspicuous broad bars of the last mentioned colour diverge from the base of the wing, one of them running along the centre, the other along the anterior border, and unite with a transverse one, which commences at the apex and terminates towards the middle of the posterior margin; external margin with a broad clay- coloured band. The base of the under wings is bluish-ash, which colour is succeeded by a broad black band, and the hinder extremity is red; the anal angle black. The ground colour of the abdomen is the same as that of the thorax, the back with two parallel streaks of olive-brown, which are intersected by a narrow band of the same colour on each segment.
The caterpillar is greenish-yellow, transversely striped with reddish-brown, with a series of oblique white stripes on the sides, terminating a little below the spirales, which are included within the white portion; head and legs reddish-brown; the anal segment acutely prominent on the back, but not prolonged into a horn. Its food seems to be various. Abbot figures it on the Jussiea erecta, but it more commonly feeds on the vine and magnolia glauca, It is not a very common insect in America.
