The salamander is uniform slate gray to brown or dark olive dorsally and dirty white ventrally.

[3] Necturus punctatus is found on the Atlantic coastal plain and the Piedmont of the eastern United States, from southeastern Virginia to southcentral Georgia.

[1][2] Populations further west into Alabama and Florida represent another, undescribed species.

[2] Dwarf waterdogs live in slow, sand- or mud-bottomed streams and connected ditches, cypress swamps; also stream-fed rice fields and mill ponds.

[1] Necturus punctatus is not considered threatened—it has a relatively wide range, with viable populations through most of it.