• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Why are all corn hybrids "corns"?

Clovis

Clovis

Pirate
So I've been thinking about this question awhile now and thought I'd come ask the community.

Why is it that when a corn snake is hybridized the offspring is considered a corn? The rootbeercorn, the creamsicle corn, the Jungle corn, just to name a few examples. Is it a marketing strategy? Is it something about the Red Rat Snake's genetics that makes the patterning more dominant? what is it?
 
I think it mainly has to do with looks. The ones that you named are usually much more "corn-like" in appearance than their other parent.
 
RobbiesCornField said:
I think it mainly has to do with looks. The ones that you named are usually much more "corn-like" in appearance than their other parent.
Click to expand...

Can you think of any Hybrid corns that aren't referred to as corns, or that don't have the distinctive "corn" look?
 
Now while I know that I am not queen of the world, I rather wish I was so I could change this!
I don't like that these hybrids are referred to as corns at all.
Just makes things confusing for the new people, and makes them sound pure when they are not.
These animals are NOT corns!
 
Well, to be frank "Corn Snake" is a common name and should really be called "Red Rat Snakes."

Personally I own one hybrid (and will likely own more in the future, as I think most of them are gorgeous) and as I learn more and more about them, I get more and more questions about them.
 
Clovis said:
Can you think of any Hybrid corns that aren't referred to as corns, or that don't have the distinctive "corn" look?
Click to expand...

Not off the top of my head. Probably because they're mixes that I don't even realize have corn in them. There are some hybrids that also have the name of both types of snake built into them (i.e. Pueblacorn, Sinacorn, etc.).
 
Unless they are scientifically being classified as a separate species, hybrids don't have the luxury of being given another name. The kings and milks crossed with corns are no longer kings, milks or rat snakes. It would be awesome to have a specific name for all hybrids to be classified as, like pantherophis ot lampropeltis, but that hasn't happened yet. For most people, it's easier to understand the genetics if they are called by something that implies what kind of snakes were used to create said hybrid. I would love to drop "corn" from the names. I call my king/corn crosses Jungles, not jungle corns. In fact, I'm going to begin calling all of mine just hybrids or something like that: Jungle hybrid snake, Beast hybrid ratsnake. I'll work on it.
 
dionythicus said:
Unless they are scientifically being classified as a separate species, hybrids don't have the luxury of being given another name. The kings and milks crossed with corns are no longer kings, milks or rat snakes. It would be awesome to have a specific name for all hybrids to be classified as, like pantherophis ot lampropeltis, but that hasn't happened yet. For most people, it's easier to understand the genetics if they are called by something that implies what kind of snakes were used to create said hybrid. I would love to drop "corn" from the names. I call my king/corn crosses Jungles, not jungle corns. In fact, I'm going to begin calling all of mine just hybrids or something like that: Jungle hybrid snake, Beast hybrid ratsnake. I'll work on it.
Click to expand...

I like this idea, and your reasoning is sound. Also, this is not something that had occurred to me. A Hybrid snake would, by definition, not fall into the scientific naming conventions allotted to it's parents.
 
Clovis said:
Well, to be frank "Corn Snake" is a common name and should really be called "Red Rat Snakes."
Click to expand...

Even though you are correct in that they are also known as red rat snakes, calling them by that name is also misleading, since rat snakes are a completely different genus and species than corns. Rat snakes are Elaphe obsleta and corns are Pantherophis guttatus. The next taxonomic groups up is the family colubridae, which rat and corns share, but so do hognoses, bullsnakes, and almost any other non-venomous snake in the US.
 
My son is doing a science project on this subject. It was supposed to be about corn snake populations which was pretty impossible so he got permission from the teacher to change to it to hybrids and intergrades. When he turned it in, she said she wanted to know which of the ones he listed..The Creamsicle, The Junglecorn, The Rootbeer, The Pueblocorn and The Bairdi Corn...is the most popular and sells the most. I told him it would be the Creamsicle or Jungle. I guess the rootbeer wouldn't be too far behind either since it is the "normal" version of the Creamsicle....Opionions??
 
Creams would probably be #1, but they are the amel version of the rootbeer so both would fall into that category. Of course, there are so many of them out there that no one realises have Emoryi blood in them. Jungles would be #2, Pueblacorns #3 and Bairdicorns a very distant #4. They are the newest/youngest hybrid on that list.
 
AliCat37 said:
Even though you are correct in that they are also known as red rat snakes, calling them by that name is also misleading, since rat snakes are a completely different genus and species than corns. Rat snakes are Elaphe obsleta and corns are Pantherophis guttatus. The next taxonomic groups up is the family colubridae, which rat and corns share, but so do hognoses, bullsnakes, and almost any other non-venomous snake in the US.
Click to expand...


Well, "Rat Snakes" are a much more diverse classification, not held to simply Elaphe obsleta. Many rat snakes fall into another genus, for instance Bogertophis, which the Baja and the Trans Pecos are part of, Ptyas, which holds many of the oriental rats, and various others. The term Corn Snake comes from the late 1600s, rather than a scientific classification. (though, admittedly at the time, it was also classified in the Elaphe Genus). Elaphe obsleta is just the Western Black Rat.
 
Clovis said:
Well, "Rat Snakes" are a much more diverse classification, not held to simply Elaphe obsleta. Many rat snakes fall into another genus, for instance Bogertophis, which the Baja and the Trans Pecos are part of, Ptyas, which holds many of the oriental rats, and various others. The term Corn Snake comes from the late 1600s, rather than a scientific classification. (though, admittedly at the time, it was also classified in the Elaphe Genus). Elaphe obsleta is just the Western Black Rat.
Click to expand...

Either way, it is still very misleading. Elaphe obsleta obsleta is the black rat though. However, it is the same thing with the Bogertophis as it is with the corn snakes. They are called rat snakes, though they belong to an entirely separate group of snakes, all within the colubrid family.
 
I deal with plants so I put little stock in common names. Scientific names are more specific. If I know my taxonomy correctly, corn, milk, rat and king snakes are all colubrids. So you could collectively refer to them as colubrid hybrids. I think there is a scientific way to name hybrids based on the parent names, but I would have to look it up.
 
AliCat37 said:
Either way, it is still very misleading. Elaphe obsleta obsleta is the black rat though. However, it is the same thing with the Bogertophis as it is with the corn snakes. They are called rat snakes, though they belong to an entirely separate group of snakes, all within the colubrid family.
Click to expand...
To be fair, all of these snakes belong to the colubrinae subfamily. However, this is still a large group at nearly a hundred genera.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top