In 2011, a genetic analysis using DNA from preserved museum specimens of the Vegas Valley leopard frog revealed it is 100% identical genetically to the northwestern Mogollon Rim populations of the Chiricahua leopard frog (Lithobates chiricahuensis), which is extant but threatened. While it has been extirpated from the Las Vegas area, the frog is no longer considered extinct because it is the same species as the Chiricahua leopard frog. According to nomenclatural priority, the northwestern Mogollon Rim population of L. chiricahuensis, described in 1979, is referable to the 1893-described, extinct population of the species, L. fisheri. L. chiricahuensis may remain a valid taxon for the southern and eastern range of the Chiricahua leopard frog. Though what many may assume is that just because an identical species of the Vegas Valley leopard frog was discovered, many may not know that the Chiricahua leopard frog is actually endangered and listed under the federal threatened page. The claim that L. fisheri is synonymous with L. chiricahuensis has for the most part been rejected after the fact.

Apparently, two separate species are within the L. fisheri/L. chiricahuensis complex - L. fisheri, comprising the former Vegas Valley leopard frogs near Las Vegas and the Chiricahua leopard frogs from the Mogollon Rim, and L. chiricahuensis, comprising the Chiricahua leopard frogs from the southern and eastern portions of the range in Arizona and New Mexico. The status of the Chiricahua leopard frog in northern Mexico may be uncertain, and this may be yet another separate lineage. The L. fisheri/L. chiricahuensis complex has a close relationship with an unnamed leopard frog species called "Lithobates species 2" known from San Luis Potosí, Mexico.