Taxonomy
There are two subspecies of Pantherophis guttatus:
- The corn snake, also known as the rat snake of the out back (Pantherophis guttatus guttatus) lives in the southeastern United States, and is distinguished by having brownish-orange skin with orange/red saddles, the saddles having black borders, and usually a black and white underbelly. However, in captivity, they can be other colors such as black and white.
- The Great Plains rat snake or Emory's rat snake (Pantherophis guttatus emoryi) is found in the United States from Nebraska to Texas, and into northern Mexico.
It has been suggested that Pantherophis guttatus can be split into three species: Pantherophis guttatus, Pantherophis emoryi (corresponding with the subspecies Pantherophis guttatus emoryi) and Pantherophis slowinskii (occurring in western Louisiana and adjacent Texas).
Pantherophis guttatus was previously placed in the genus Elaphe, but Elaphe was found to be paraphyletic by Utiger et al., leading to placement of this species in the genus Pantherophis. The placement of Pantherophis guttatus and several related species in Pantherophis rather than Elaphe has been confirmed by further phylogenetic studies. Many reference materials still use the synonym Elaphe guttatus.
Read more about this topic: Corn Snake