It is native to New Guinea, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia, where it attacks and kills living trees and damages structural timbers.

The pronotum is long with about 70 setae (bristles), mostly near the margins, and the mesothorax, metathorax, and abdomen are also densely bristly.

[4] Since it has been determined that C. curvignathus is a synonym of C. elisae, its range has been extended northwards through Indonesia and the Philippines to the Malay Peninsula, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

[2] C. elisae primarily attacks both young and old evergreen trees in the genus Araucaria, the klinkii (A. klinkii) and the hoop pine (A. cunninghamii), but is also known to attack other hosts such as the taun tree (Pometia pinnata), Hopea trees, the papaya (Carica papaya), and the mango (Mangifera indica)[1] A parasitic fungus, Antennopsis gayi, is sometimes found growing on the body of C. elisiae[5] and the rove beetle Coptophysa obesa is sometimes found living inside the termite colony.

The termites enter a tree through an injury to the bark and tunnel into the interior, where they eat the wood and often cause the death of the host.