The western sand darter occurs in river systems from Lake Michigan to Texas, including several sections of the Mississippi Basin.

It is distinguished from other sand darters the lack of dark bands or blotches, and by a spine on its operculum.

It requires loose substrate, because it spends much of its time buried in the sand with just its head protruding.

[6] The Western sand darter was first formally described in 1885 by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan (1851–1931) and Seth Eugene Meek (1859–1914) with the type locality given as the Des Moines River at Ottumwa, Iowa.

The Mississippi River and associated streams and tributaries are heavily channelized and partitioned by locks and dams, eliminating sites where the fish might live.