like many snubnose darters, they have a blunt snout. typically, nuptial males have a uniformly yellow lower side and olive upper side as compared to e. duryi, which has an orange to red lower and upper side. e. flavum adult males have yellow to orange lips while e. duryi has green or gray lips. lastly, the mid-lateral stripe pigmentation in e. flavum is nearly as dark as the 7-9 black lateral blotches (etnier & bailey, 1989).