An
intergrade is a naturally occuring cross (i.e., collected from the wild) between two different SUBSPECIES. That's it. If you stop and think about it, there isn't really any intergrades for cornsnakes. If they do exist (currently suspected but unknown), they would have to be limited to the Ball Parish area...and that's IT. For anyone confused, intergrades occur in zones. You don't find pure subspecies and intergrades in the same area. It's impossible: they are either all pure or all intergrades.
Hybrids are, in the wild, crosses between different species. It doesn't matter if they share genera names or not. As long as they are different SPECIES, they are hybrids. Geeeezzzzzz.......lol. Hybrids, by definition, MUST be pretty rare, although some sister taxa do have as high as a 5% hybridization rate where the two species overlap. (Yes, this is a fuzzt definition of species, but ALL such definitions are fuzzy somewhere.)
Now, I believe we need to see three things before we jump on or off the hybrid wagon: images of the MOTHER, images of the SIBLINGS, and images of the OFFSPRING. Yes, I see some things that look off, but that was said about striped corns and bloodred corns, too. Personally, I'm not jumping on the hybrid bandwagon even a little bit UNTIL we see what the offspring look like and get some data concerning the other 4 male siblings. Even if pure, is there any surprise that pure ones can have a mutation that make them look like closely related species 9i.e., bloods and stripes again!) It doesn't surprise me, so lets wait and see what the BABIES look like before making any calls and potentially ruining this morph before it even exists, eh? That just sounds like a good idea to me!
With that said, I don't even for a second think "that has to be an emoryi hybrid," but I have seen that pattern before. Those split blotches look almost EXACTLY like the split blotches seen in many chocolate emory ratsnakes. Almost EXACTLY like that. The pattern seems to be linked to the color mutation, but not ALL of them have it - and some normal byproducts show a little of that pattern even though they aren't chocolates. Don Soderberg collected the original chocolate in Kansas, so there is no reason to suspect hybrid there. Plus, the babies are perfectly normal looking.
Again, I have NO REASON to suspect that is an emoryi hybird based on that one animal's appearance - NONE yet - but it does show a similar pattern does exist in Elaphe as a mutation, so MAYBE this is a pure, inheritable, pattern type, too! It is NOT beyond the realm of possibility. If it didn't have a patternless ventral, my guess would be that it would NOT have a Mendelian mode of inheritance. With the patternless ventral, I'm thinking it might be possible. Good luck! I'm leaning with Susan, though - this has the definite look of an INCUBATION related anamoly. Again, what did the siblings look like? With such a high mortality rate in eggs and neonates,
incubation-related problems are sounding EXTREMELY likely.
Where was the mother captured? A little locality would help a lot with idea about the ventral pattern (if not simple recessive), possible crosses, etc.
KJ
