corn vs rat

[marie]

i'm confused i thought corn snakes and rat snakes were the same. what is the difference between a bogertophis and a elaphe. how do i know if i have a corn snake or a rat snake..? thank you marie

[Katt]

A cornsnake is a species of ratsnake. Cornsnakes are also called red ratsnakes.

The differences between Bogertrophis and Elaphe and Pantherophis, are in scalation, colour/pattern, life history, hemipenal shape, not to mention geographic differences and differences in mitochondrial DNA.

[marie]

so is an amenalistic (sp) a corn or a rat snake thank you

[MouseKilla]

Both corns and rats may be amelanistic. Amelanism simply refers to any animal that does not produce the black/brown pigment melanin. In corn snakes it means only the remaining red and yellow pigments are displayed on the animal. Often amelanistic snakes are called "albinos" though the term albino actually means lacking all pigment.

[rwg]

There are a few genuses of rat snakes. Taxonomy changes all the time as well, so some of the bogertophis used to be elaphe.

[Andy_G]

A corn snake IS a rat snake. Amelanistic is a lack of melanin as Mousekilla says.