Larger than P. purpureicollis with coppery coloration ventrally and on legs. Macleay 1872 gives the length of P. cupripes as 4 lines (= c. 8.5 mm) and of P. purpureicollis as 2.75 lines (= c. 5.8 mm). He describes the underside of P. cupripes as 'very brilliant, green in the centre, and cupreous on the sides and apex' and its legs as 'a coppery red'.

The occurrence of this species in SA is uncertain. Several specimens in the SA Museum previously determined as P. cupripes are now considered to be P. purpureicollis, but there remain some records of P. cupripes for SA from interstate museums which need verification.

Pseudanilara cupripes was first described, along with P. purpureicollis, in the genus Anthaxia by MacLeay 1872, based on type specimens collected from Gayndah in Queensland. Carter 1926 questioned whether P. cupripes and P. purpureicollis might be the same species, however, Bellamy & Peterson 2010, having studied the types, considered them distinct species.

Adult host plants reported for eastern Australia include Eucalyptus viminalis (Cowie 2001) which also occurs in SA.
Williams (1985), as reported in Hawkeswood 2005b, recorded emergences of P. cupripes from the dry dead wood of two east-Australian Myrtaceae species, and Hawkeswood 2007d found breeding in Eucalyptus crebra and Kunzea ambigua based on the presence of dead adults.