Head and pronotum metallic golden-green to bronze or reddish; elytra straw-coloured, usually with a pair of brownish spots in the posterior half that are variable in size (and from which it gets its name notata, meaning 'marked'), or the spots sometimes absent. The ventral side has the abdomen entirely testaceous (light translucent-brown and non-metallic) in both males and females. Superficially very similar to C. pallidipennis, but that belongs in another species group and is distinguishable by its more rounded body shape and the abdomen ventrally metallic in females. Also similar to the slightly larger C. subtincta which has elytra darkened to orange towards their apices, males with only the last three ventral abdominal segments testaceous and the females entirely metallic green ventrally.

A summer-emerging species that can be very abundant in the blossoms of summer-flowering Mallee Eucalypt species and Dryland Tea-tree Melaleuca lanceolata. Its predominantly yellowish colouration pattern is typical of a number of summer-emerging Buprestid species that are adapted to feeding in Eucalypt flowers, including the closely related C. subtincta, as well as C. pallidipennis and C. flava which belong to different species groups.