THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Tarahumara Frog
Lithobates tarahumarae (Boulenger, 1917)
LITH-oh-BAY-teez — tah-rah-hoo-MAH-rah-eye

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.12.14.14.32.07)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.15 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the Indigenous people and region where it occurs.
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.
tarahumarae — Named for the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people of the Sierra Madre Occidental in northern Mexico, where the species is native. The Latinized suffix -ae indicates “of the Tarahumara.”

First instance(s) of published English names:
Tarahumare Frog (Rana tarahumarae: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1917 Boulenger, George A. Descriptions of new frogs of the genus Rana. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 8 20 413–418:
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
1968 Zweifel, Richard G. Rana tarahumarae. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (66):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.
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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 27 January 2026 17:18 CT