Large size, general orange-brown colouration with darker markings on anterior of pronotum in males; ventral side mostly bronze-grey with hairs relatively inconspicuous.

This is the largest Buprestid in SA and can be over 60 mm long. In exceptional years it appears in huge numbers, together with T. stevensii (on Eyre Peninsula) and, to a lesser degree, T. parvicollis. In intervening years it is only present in low numbers or hardly at all. The major episodic outbreaks are erratic and difficult to predict, but may be related to life-cycle cohorts and be triggered by major rainfall events. At such times the mallee country comes alive with helicopter-like buzzing as these large beetles lumber from canopy to canopy to feed on Eucalypt blossoms. Their emergence in mid to late summer coincides with the peak-flowering of Narrow-leaf Mallee Eucalyptus leptophylla, which is the principal adult host.

Although recorded on a variety of Eucalyptus species, Narrow-leaf Mallee E. leptophylla greatly predominates as an adult host. The presentation and arrangement of its nectar-rich blossoms is well-suited to this and other large Buprestids. Flowering occurs en masse and renders whole sections of the outer canopy creamy-white, allowing the beetles to move about freely.

Tepper 1887 provided an early breeding record for it (as Stigmodera heros) in Eucalyptus lignotubers, or 'mallee stumps': 'The larvae of this, and the next four species inhabit the so-called mallee roots, the subterranean trunk of Eucalyptus uncinata [misapplied for E. leptophylla in SA at that time], E. oleosa, and E. gracilis. They attain a length of three inches [75 mm]; require at least two years (probably four) till maturity, and are sometimes found numerously therein. .. I found once many hundreds in a small load.'