THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Lowland Leopard Frog
Lithobates yavapaiensis (Platz and Frost, 1984)
LITH-oh-BAY-teez — yah-vah-pie-EN-sis

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: 2023.12.15.07.52.47)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 2.26 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona California New Mexico Utah

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for an Indigenous people of Arizona.
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.
yavapaiensis — Named after the Yavapai people of central Arizona. The Latin suffix -ensis means “from” or “of,” so the name means “from the land of the Yavapai.”

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

Taxon Links:

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

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
1962 Ruibal, Rodolfo. The ecology and genetics of a desert population of Rana pipiens. Copeia 1962:189-195
1984 Platz, J1984ohn E. and John S. Frost Rana yavapaiensis, a new species of leopard frog (Rana pipiens complex). Copeia 1984:940–948
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.
1988 Platz, James E. Rana yavapaiensis Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (418):1-2
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