Likely extirpated from AR. Color brownish to grayish, usually with 6-8 irregular golden dorsal blotches. Tail not fin-like. 
Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019
This species is represented by 286 records from 7 sources: 285 museum (
), 0 literature (
), 0 research (
), and 0 observation (
), with 1 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (
). It has been museum vouchered for 3 of 75 counties. Years of collection range from 1937 to 1972.
This species historically occurred along the eastern side of Crowley’s Ridge, where very localized populations inhabited springs. It has not been found in Arkansas since 1972 (D. B. Means, pers. comm.), including failed contemporary surveys at almost all of the historical localities in 2014 (K. G. Roberts, D. S. Shepard, et al., pers. obs.), and is presumed
extirpated. New techniques for obtaining DNA from formalin-preserved specimens (Einaga et al., 2017) may afford the opportunity to confirm the taxonomic identity of these former populations. Trauth et al. (2004) mapped populations in the South Central Plains as D. conanti, however, recent genetic analyses have effectively demonstrated these to be D. brimleyorum (K. J. Irwin and D. B. Shepard, pers. comm.). Taxonomic uncertainty still exists for extreme southern Arkansas (see Desmognathus brimleyorum), where contemporary specimen samples suitable for genetic analysis are lacking.
