Straw-coloured background with medial patch on pronotum, and elytral post-medial and apical fasciae dark blue. Ventral side dark metallic blue, but testaceous on posterior abdomen.

Known in SA from a specimen collected by L.R. Reese at Minnie Downs Station in the far NE of SA, most likely in the 1920s or 1930s. The homestead for Minnie Downs (which is not to be confused with the Queensland location of the same name) was located on Appamurna Waterhole on the west side of Lake Etamunbanea.

A second SA specimen (unseen) is listed for the National Museum of Victoria with the location given as 'Tarcoola'.

The description by Waterhouse 1874 was based on type material from Nic[k]ol Bay on the Pilbara coast of WA. The Minnie Downs specimen differs somewhat from typical T. tricolorata in the north-west of WA, most notably in its more rounded pronotum, and more closely matches some material from south-eastern Queensland. Currently (2023), the Australian Fauna Directory treats T. tricolorata as an 'aggregate' species, recognising that it is need of revision as it includes a number of forms that may warrant recognition at subspecies or even species level. Thus the name T. tricolorata as applied here is flagged with the qualification 's. l.' (sensu lato), meaning 'in a broad sense'.