A large (7.5-19.5 cm), stout-bodied species, the mud salamander has an orange-brown to bright crimson dorsum with brown or black spots that are often widely scattered. The tail is short and makes up less than 40 percent of the total length of the salamander.

Mud salamanders inhabit muddy, mucky areas along swamps, seeps, bogs, springs, floodplain forests and headwater streams.

They occur throughout middle and eastern Tennessee.