Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As I understand it corn snakes and rat snakes can mate with each other. Are they the same type of snake just from a different region, or are they a completely different species that is just coincidentally able to bread with corn snakes?
I also heard that rat snakes are usually a little bigger and a little more aggressive, is this true?

Thank you
MrBfrog
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0.0.1 Common Columbian Boa (Damian)
0.0.1 Amel Cornsnake (Kernal)
0.0.1 Okeetee Cornsnake (Guido)
1.1.0 Lhasa Apso's (Monkey, Tiffany)
1.0.0 Rat Terrier (Ricky)
1.3.0 Mice (nameless)
0.0.4 Goldfish (nameless)
0.1.0 Beta Fish (nameless)
0.0.1 Snail

Also Canibal the Musical is just about the the most funny movie ever!!!

..

>>..
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

It's all guttata to me.... the moniker "Cornsnake" relates to one species Elaphe (Pantherophis) guttata. So Emery's and Red Rats are both "corns". Of course if you really wanted to get diverse....Try Chicken snake. The joy of common names!

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Rat snakes include snakes of the genera Elaphe (or Pantherophis) and Bogertophis. The corn snake, Elaphe g. guttata, is simply a specific subspecies of rat snake, and in fact is sometimes called the red rat snake. Here are the domestic species of rat snakes and their corresponding subspecies:

Elaphe obsoleta...
obsoleta (Black Rat snake)
lindheimerii (Texas Rat snake)
quadrivittata (Yellow Rat snake)
rossalleni (Everglades Rat snake)
spilodes (Gray Rat snake)

Elaphe guttata...
guttata (Corn snake)
emoryi (Great Plains Rat snake)

Elaphe vulpina...
vulpina (Western Fox snake)
gloydi (Eastern Fox snake)

Elaphe bairdi...
(Baird's Rat snake) (no ssp.)

Bogertophis subocularis...
(Trans-Pecos Rat snake) (no ssp.)

There probably are other species/subspecies out west, but this info is from Conant and Collins (1998), "R&A of Eastern/Central North America."

So the other posts are correct: all Corn snakes are rat snakes, but not all rat snakes are Corn snakes.

Intergradation is fairly common among the related subspecies wherever their natural ranges overlap. For example, Corn snakes and Great plains Rat snakes intergrade over parts of southern AR, LA and far eastern TX. Although natural interbreeding between different species can not be ruled out, I believe that most of the resulting hybrids are the result of captive breeding programs.
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MichaelB

Thank you
-----
0.0.1 Common Columbian Boa (Damian)
0.0.1 Amel Cornsnake (Kernal)
0.0.1 Okeetee Cornsnake (Guido)
1.1.0 Lhasa Apso's (Monkey, Tiffany)
1.0.0 Rat Terrier (Ricky)
1.3.0 Mice (nameless)
0.0.4 Goldfish (nameless)
0.1.0 Beta Fish (nameless)
0.0.1 Snail

Also Canibal the Musical is just about the the most funny movie ever!!!