Staurois guttatus is a widespread species occurring in the lowlands and hilly regions of northern and western Borneo. It is especially abundant in Sarawak but also occurs in Brunei, Sabah, and Kalimantan.

Males typically reach just over 30 mm in snout–vent length (SVL), while females grow up to 55 mm. The species has been recorded at elevations of up to 1700 m a.s.l.

The body is slender, and the eyes are large. The dorsal skin is pebbled with scattered small round tubercles, particularly along the flanks, while the underside is coarsely granular. The tympanum is visible but relatively small.

The dorsal coloration is usually brown with black blotches, providing excellent camouflage against granite rocks. This pattern continues onto the legs but with less contrast. The sides of the head and body are green. The throat and chest are lemon-yellow to greenish yellow, and the belly is typically white. Toes I–III are turquoise blue or white above, as is the webbing between them. The iris is orange in the upper sector, black in the anterior and posterior sectors, and pale golden in the lower sector. The pupil is horizontal and slightly drop-shaped. 

Unlike most frogs, S. guttatus is active during the day. It inhabits rocky, cascading streams of various sizes and is often observed on boulders in the splash zones of waterfalls. The species is well known for its foot-flagging behavior: individuals signal to each other by lifting a foot to expose the brightly colored webbing. At night, individuals usually rest on saplings, often positioned above the stream.

The tadpoles are reddish with a bluish iridescence. Their eyes are small and appear vestigial but grow towards metamorphosis. The body is dorsoventrally flattened with a wedge-shaped snout, while the tail is long with a low fin. Tadpoles of S. guttatus are highly specialized for life among thick accumulations of leaf litter in streamside pools. Remarkably, they closely resemble centrolenid tadpoles from South America, an example of striking convergent evolution.