Show & Tell
Amel, Butter and Wild-type Scaleless mutants. A mutation inherited from the inter-species hybridization of a Great Plains Ratsnake (aka: Emory’s Ratsnake), Pantherophis emoryi) and a Corn snake, Pantherophis guttatus, these three Scaleleless corn snakes demonstrate a hidden color beauty not seen in their scaled counterparts. Most of the scales are missing on Scaleless mutants of this species, but we’re fortunate that they have belly scales (aka: scutes) for more functional locomotion. Without belly scales, a completely scale-less corn could be compared to a “fish out of water” with regard to the flailing movement they would experience? We are not suggesting that crossing any Emory’s Ratsnake with any Corn Snake would render scale-less snakes. It just happened that both of the original snakes of these cousin species possessed one copy of the paired gene copies for the mutation, Scaleless.