Chiricahua Leopard Frog Lithobates chiricahuensis  (Platz & Mecham, 1979)
An adult specimen from Arizona Image © Jim Rorabaugh, 2009
Taxonomic Comments:
Goldberg, Caren S., Kimberleigh J. Field & Michael J. Sredl (2004 Journal of Herpetology 38(3): 313-319), using mtDNA data, demonstrated that L. chiricahuensis probably consists of two distinct species and placed L. subaquavocalis (Platz, 1993) in the synonymy of L. chiricahuensis. Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, De Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green & Wheeler (2006. The Amphibian Tree of Life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 297: 1-370) placed this species in the genus Lithobates (Fitzinger, 1843). The standard common name remains Chiricahua Leopard Frog. Collins & Taggart (2009 Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians. Sixth Edition) submitted for consideration the proposal to synonymize L. subaquavocalis by Goldberg et al. (2004 op. cit.) to an anuran systematist group composed of Rafael de Sa, Julian Faivovich, Tony Gamble, Anna Goebel, S. Blair Hedges, Paul E. Moler, Emily C. Moriarty Lemmon, Gregory Pauly, and Brian K. Sullivan, and a majority of those responding agreed.