Its life cycle is little known, its isolated populations are increasingly restricted by agricultural drainage, and it is listed as a threatened subspecies.

[6] The Illinois chorus frog, a wetland amphibian, grows to a maximum length of 1.5 inches (3.8 cm).

[citation needed] The pools of spring meltwater, where they live and eat, begin to dry up as early as mid-May, and the frogs disappear into hibernation below the winter frost line.

However, the invention of laser land-levelling, and its use by rice paddy operators, has eliminated 61% of the subspecies' range in this southern state.

The study hoped to develop a methodological protocol to monitor the Illinois chorus frog's threatened population.