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OK, where have I been? Sinse when did elaphe guttata guttata become pantherophis guttatus? Is this a Latin to Greek thing? Is this because of all the herpaculture going on. Someone please fill me in.

Don't know the exact ins & outs, but it changed last year. The Eurasian Rat Snakes kept the "Elaphe" designation, and American Rat Snakes have been renamed "Pantherophis" to distinguish them as a completely separate ...er.. genus, species...?... thing.

The names are all still Latin.

The name Pantherophis has been resurrected for the NA rat snakes. This is because the NA rats and the old world rats do not share the same DNA.

This is from CNAH..
"Utiger, Helfenberger, Schatti, Schmidt, Ruf & Ziswiler (2002 Russian Journal of Herpetology 9(2): 105-124), using mtDNA, presented evidence that North American Rat Snakes of the genus Elaphe are a monophyletic lineage different from Old World members of the genus, and resurrected the available name Pantherophis Fitzinger for all North American (north of Mexico) taxa."

So what has happened is according to DNA, the new world rats and old world rats now have their own distinct family name. Which is pretty cool, becuase now our rat snakes have the better name of the two. I like the name Pantherophis. Seems fitting.

The species and ssp names are now feminine. i.e...
Pantherophis guttatus guttatus; Pantherophis obsoletus obsoletus; etc....

And if you want to read some really crazy stuff, I mean crazy, read this link and start pulling your hair out!!!!

CNAH - Rat snake reclassification

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RATS
1.0 Corn snake "Warpath" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Yellow rat snake "Wolverine" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian