The basal part of the under surface with irregularly arranged, black, white-edged transverse streaks.

The female has on the upperside a broad, curved white transverse band, proximally sharply defined, on the forewing and a bluish white transverse band on the hindwing and is hence very similar above to the female of violetta East Africa from Natal to Kenia in British East Africa.

[4] Larvae feed on Trema orientalis, Albizia adianthifolia, Celtis africana, Cola natalensis, Chaerachme aristata, Bafia racemosa, Afzelia quanzensis, Milletia sutherlandi, Maytenus senegalensis, and Craibia brevecaudatus.

[2] Similar to Charaxes xiphares but the female has a much wider forewing white band.

Also similar to Charaxes violetta, which has straight white lines on the underside (these are irregular in Charaxes cithaeron) [10] Kielland discusses the great variability both within and between the various described subspecies and implies that the species is not divisible into definable subspecies.