[4] The golden darter has a gold margin to the 1st dorsal fin and the body is orange in color marked with vertical dark bars towards the tail.

[1] The golden darter prefers shallow gravel riffles in small to medium-sized rivers.

[1] The golden darter was first formally described in 1997 by Jay Richard Stauffer, Jr. and Ellen S. van Snik Gray with the type locality given as Copper Creek, 180–460 meters upstream from its mouth on Virginia State Route 627, 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) south of Clinchport, Virginia.

[6] Previously these fish were considered to be the upper Tennessee River population of the Tippecanoe darter (E. tippiecanoe) but were found to differ in meristics and coloration.

[7] The specific name honours Robert F. Denoncourt who introduced Stauffer to the "diversity and complexity of the stream fishes in the southern Appalachian drainage".