[3] Charaxes jasius is a medium to large butterfly with a wingspan reaching 76–83 mm in males,[4] the female being larger.

The upperside ground colour of the wings is dark brownish-black, with some changeable purplish sheen viewed at varying angles; forewing with suggestion of darker discal bars, postdiscal spots orange; hindwing with whitish patch near costal border, dusted with brownish scales; outer border of both wings deep orange-ochreous, divided by black-scaled veins.

The underside has a very characteristic mosaic appearance broadly similar to a number of related species, traversed by a jumble of bands and of brown, reddish, greyish and blackish patches, all edged with a filigree of white.

[8] Historical attempts to assemble a cluster of presumably related species into a "Charaxes jasius Group" have not been wholly convincing.

More recent taxonomic revision,[9] corroborated by phylogenetic research, allow a more rational grouping congruent with cladistic relationships.

Within a well-populated clade of 27 related species sharing a common ancestor approximately 16 mya during the Miocene,[3] 26 are now considered together as the jasius Group.

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

This species occurs along the European Mediterranean coast from west Portugal to the coastal islands of Greece (except for the northern Adriatic sea coast), from the central and south peninsula of Italy to Istria, and the coastline of southern Anatolia including Samos, Ikaria and Rhodes.

The preferred larval foodplant is the Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo), although secondary or perhaps accidental choices are known to include a few Osyris species.