[3] The southern cavefish was described by Charles Frédéric Girard in 1859 from a well near Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky.

In 2002, a well-like entrance into a cave on the property of a car dealership in Corydon was discovered and is believed to represent the type locality.

In this review, all Typhlichthys populations were included in T. subterraneus, as they were unable to find any clear geographic pattern in morphological variation.

[7] Recent surveys in the vicinity of Corydon have failed to document T. subterraneus, finding only Amblyopsis spelaea.

The most likely contender for recognition as a separate species is Typhlichthys eigenmanni Charlton, 1933, described from Camden County, Missouri.

This name is due to the southern states in which it is found, including Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

The regions that it occupies include the Ozark plateau of central and southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas, the Cumberland and Interior low plateaus of northwest Alabama, northwest Georgia, central Tennessee and Kentucky, and southern Indiana.