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Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  
Chiricahua Leopard Frog
Lithobates chiricahuensis (Platz and Mecham, 1979)
LITH-oh-BAY-teez — cheer-ih-KAH-hoo-EN-sis
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Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
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USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 The status of Mexican populations needs study. Rana subaquavocalis Platz, 1993, is a synonym according to Goldberg et al. (2004, Journal of Herpetology 38: 313–319), although some authors (e.g., Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 299–314; Dubois, 2006, Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences. Paris 329: 823–840) have continued to recognize the two taxa as distinct species, without comment. (Mendelson, Joseph R., III, Darrel R. Frost, Emily Moriarty Lemmon, and Maureen A. Donnelly. 2025. Anura – Frogs. Pages 1-9 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 4,098 Total; 3,296 Museum; 802 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.12.14.07.50.56)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona New Mexico

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the mountain range in the southwestern U.S. where it was first discovered.
Lithobates — From Greek lithos (λίθος), “stone,” and bates (βάτης), “one who walks or treads.” The name can be interpreted as “rock-walker,” possibly referencing the terrestrial habits of many species in the genus.
From Greek lithos (“stone”) and bates (“one who walks or treads”)—meaning “rock-walker.”
chiricahuensis — Named after the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. The Latin suffix -ensis denotes “origin from,” so the name means “from the Chiricahuas.”

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1920 Boulenger, George A. A monograph of the American frogs of the genus Rana. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (55):413-480
1957 Ruibal, Rodolfo. An altitudinal and latitudinal cline in Rana pipiens. Copeia 1957(3):212-221
1979 Platz, James E. and John S. Mecham. Rana chiricahuensis, a new species of leopard frog (Rana pipiens complex) from Arizona. Copeia 1979:383–390
1984 Platz, James E. and John S. Mecham. Rana chiricahuensis.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (347):1-2
1985 Hillis, David M. Evolutionary genetics and systematics of New World frogs of the genus Rana: An analysis of ribosomal DNA, allozymes, and morphology. Dissertation. University of Kansas, Lawrence. pp.
2006 Dubois, Alain. New proposals for naming lower-ranked taxa within the frame of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences. Paris. (Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences) 329(10):823–840
2025 Chambers, E. Anne, José Daniel Lara-Tufiño, Gustavo Campillo-García, Antonio Yolocalli Cisneros-Bernal, Daniel J. Dudek Jr., Virginia León-Règagnon, Josiah H. Townsend, Oscar Flores-Villela, and David M. Hillis. Distinguishing species boundaries from geographic variation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 122(19):e2423688122

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