Three stripes of yellow or orange. Background color variable and sometimes checkerboard in appearance. Black bars between labial scales. Belly mostly patternless, but with some black specks. 
Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019
This species is represented by 455 records from 30 sources: 292 museum (
), 0 literature (
), 0 research (
), and 133 observation (
), with 30 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (
). It has been museum vouchered for 59 of 75 counties (), with 7 additional counties having other forms of reported occurrence (). Years of collection range from 1855 to present.
This species occurs statewide. Powell et al. (2016) show an intergrade zone with the T. s. parietalis subspecies (not
shown) just edging to the central Arkansas-Oklahoma border.
