fill me in on classification here

[Skye]

how does the emoryi relate to the cornsnake?

Thanks

 

[CAV]

Interesting post, Skye

There are some different opinions on this subject. This is the one that I find most interesting: From Alan Tennant's Snakes of North America, Eastern and Central Regions:

The Genus Elaphe is a member of the colubrine subfamily Colubrinae - a group of powerful, oviparous constrictors represented in the eastern United States by five species: E. obsoleta, which includes five races of the nominate black rat snake; E. bairdi, Baird's rat snake; E. guttata, the corn/great plains rat snake; and E. gloydi and E. vulpina, the two fox snake species.

Tennant goes on to note the following:

In early 2003, Joseph Collins, of the Center for North American Herpotology in Lawrence, Kansas, and Frank T. Burbrink of the College of Staten Island, proposed, based on Burbrink's molecular DNA analysis, that Elaphe guttata be divided into three species: the eastern corn snake (Elaphe guttata), Slowinski's corn snake (Elaphe Slowinskii), the type found in western Lauisiana and eastern Texas, and the western Great Plains rat snake (Elaphe emoryi). This is a radical new classification, which may or may not be accepted in the herpetological community.

This theory would prove, based upon DNA analysis, that these three subspecies are genetically different. The Slowinski's being caught in this area do look different from both the Emory and the Corn.

 

[Skye]

ok, thanks, so when did the Pantherophis thing come into play?

 

[CAV]

Good question....

Truthfully, I still have yet to see it in published literature. :shrugs:

The field guide I reference in the above post was first printed in late '03 and it still uses Elaphe.

 

[Flygning]

I've never heard of a Slowinskii's corn snake--what's the difference between that and Elapha guttata?