It was described by Andrew D. Warren & Shinichi Nakahara in 2018.

[1] This butterfly is about 2 inches wide and dusky brown with jagged red-brown bands on the underside, a characteristic feature of Cyllopsis species.

Another notable feature is the two pairs of spots flanked by lines of metallic scales that might mimic the eyes and legs of jumping spiders.

[2] In the field journals of Thomas Emmel, he describes the area, with directions to the exact location, that he collected the 13 specimen (9 male and 4 female) of C. tomemmeli.

The area of Chiapas, Mexico at the time he collected them was a "dense pine-oak forest, including many apparently old-growth pines, with a sparse understory of bunch grasses and scattered flowering plants" with small open areas that allowed sunlight to enter.