It inhabits medium-sized and smaller rivers in rocky riffles with strong current.

[2] In July 2010, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the yellowcheek darter for endangered status.

[3] The fish is a federally listed endangered species of the United States, effective September 8, 2011.

[4] The yellowcheek darter was first formally described in 1964 by Edward Cowden Raney and Royal Dallas Suttkus with the type locality given as 2.5 miles southwest of Woodrow on the Devils Fork of the Little Red River in Cleburne County, Arkansas.

[5] The specific name honours the American ichthyologist George A. Moore (1899–1999) of Oklahoma.