Show & Tell
Two sub-adult Boot Key Corn Snakes produced by John Finsterwald of Coloradocorns.com, though toDAY, most of the Boot Key corns are produced by Dr. Orlando Diaz of Legacy Reptiles in Florida. There is not one single black scale between these two, even on their bellies. As different as they look–compared to mainland corns from almost anywhere–it’s easy to see why early scientific classifications described them as a subspecies of corn snake (though toDAY, they are classified simply as corn snakes, Pantherophis guttatus). Yes, captive selective-breeding has reduced the frequency of black on captive examples of these insular corns, but even some of the wild-caught Boot Key specimens I’ve seen were devoid of black.