Resembles Temognatha mitchellii but with metallic blue to green reflections on head and pronotum and on dark areas above and below. Females have a distinctive bicornate, sclerotised ovipositor structure and the subtantially smaller males lack the dark bands on the elytra.

Peterson 1991c erected the subgenus Calotemognatha for three Temognatha species with a distinctive modified ovipositor. The characteristic strongly sclerotised ovipositor valves with projecting horns are visible in the third image above. The significance of these characters was re-evaluated by Bellamy & Peterson 2000 who then elevated Calotemognatha as a separate genus.

The genus has a western centre of diversity, with the other two Calotemognatha species and the other two C. yarelli subspecies being confined to WA.

Adults are found on summer-flowering Myrtaceae and show a strong association with Melaleuca which is suspected to be its larval host. Tepper 1887 recorded that 'the beetles are found in November or later on the flowers of Melaleuca parvifolia [= M. lanceolata] and M. acuminata, in the Murray scrub and elsewhere'.