A large (6.5 -9.0 cm. wingspan) narrow-winged large-bodied moth. The forewing is light brown with darker brown markings, the paler brown areas speckled with black. Two dark patches extent inward from the costa, and the outer third of the forewing is sharply divided from the rest of the forewing, a dark brown shading outward to light brown. The hindwing is black with a wide rose-pink median band and a narrower terminal band. Very similar to the closely related Bedstraw Hawk-moth (H. gallii), which differs in having a sharply defined black, cream and grey forewing pattern without any speckling in the pale areas, and with the entire costa broadly black. The White-lined Sphinx (H. lineata) has the forewing veins all marked in white.