It has two dark green leaves and a single green or reddish pink flower with a shiny black, insect-like callus surrounded by red club-shaped calli on two-thirds of the base of the labellum.

There is a shiny black, insect-like callus about 2 mm (0.08 in) long and wide near the base of the labellum.

[2][3][4] Chiloglottis sphyrnoides was first formally described in 1991 by David Jones from a specimen collected in the Lamington National Park and the description was published in Australian Orchid Research.

[5] The specific epithet (sphyrnoides) refers to the similarity of the shape of the large callus on the labellum resembling the head of a shark in the genus Sphyrna.

The ending -oides is derived from an Ancient Greek word εἶδος (eîdos), meaning “form" or "likeness”.