Both wings above black or black-brown with a common white or whitish yellow discal band, which on the forewing is broken up into spots towards the costal margin.

The discal band on the upper surface pure white, not or only indistinctly margined with blue, on the forewing also with a spot in cellule 7 and measuring 5 – 9 mm.

(for terms see Novitates Zoologicae Volume 5:545-601 [2]) Life-sized colour plates and description of the larval and pupal stages of C. brutus and additional related species, illustrated by Dr. V. G. L. van Someren, are readily available.

[3][7] The following subspecies are recognised: Historical attempts to assemble a cluster of presumably related species into a "Charaxes jasius Group" have not been wholly convincing.

Within a well-populated clade of 27 related species sharing a common ancestor approximately 16 mya during the Miocene,[13] 26 are now considered together as The jasius Group.

[12] One of the two lineages within this clade forms a robust monophyletic group of seven species sharing a common ancestor approximately 2-3 mya, i.e. during the Pliocene,[13] and are considered as the jasius subgroup.