Key (aka: Key’s, Rosy Rat)
Most Commonly Used Name: Key Corn
Mode of Genetic Inheritance: Locality Wild Type
Morph Type: Wild Type
Eye Color: Black pupil & body ground colored iris
An insular race of corns sometimes known by their original name, Rosy Rats, are a generally pale race of wild-type corns that surely owe their general appearance to the fact that they are somewhat genetically isolated from mainland forms of their corn snake species, Pantherophis guttatus. The latest scientific studies have demonstrated that they are not a separate subspecies and therefore, their old and temporary scientific name, Elaphe guttata rosacea, does not apply. I suspect that if Man allows this race of corns to thrive on the keys, it may one DAY exhibit unique DNA distinction that will warrant sub-specific taxonomic status. Expect captive Key Corn lines to be much paler with much less black than most of their wild counterparts. If you randomly field collected most of the Keys of Florida, the variation of color themes and volume of black pigmentation would be great.
Several breeders (myself included) have performed breeding trials to verify that Terrazzos are not allelic to other gene mutations. Results were somewhat mixed – probably because people have been breeding mutations into Key Corns for so many years – but the general consensus is that most Key Corns are not allelic to current mutations. I’ve personally bred Key Corns to Diffused (aka: bloodreds) and all the babies were phenotypes for Diffused mutants. Many more breeding trials are in order. Partly because of the diversity between many of the different Key habitants (including some South Dade County, Florida, corns that satisfy the visual Key Corn standard.
Terrazzos have the beautiful tan and gray color scheme common to many of the middle-to-lower Keys Corns, and in typical Keys Corn fashion, their bellies are notably unlike bellies of mainland corns. Rarely is even one black scale found on these mutants, and the bellies are usually completely devoid of pattern or other colors. Some will have random patches of color on their bellies, but not black (this is not to say we won’t someDAY see black on Terrazzos – perhaps via out-crossing them with other mutations). Terrazzos are a lean race of corns, some reaching the length of typical mainland corns, but rarely the girth of common corns.
Note: Not all Key Corns are devoid of black. Many have black in their pattern AND on their bellies, but in that this is mostly due to captive selective breeding of the ones with the least melanin, don’t expect them to exemplify wild Key Corns. As hatchlings, they can have considerably more black than you’d expect and their color contrast between markings and ground color zones can be high. However, as adults, most will have very little (or no) black anywhere on their bodies. Most adult Key Corns in the hobby toDAY have bellies that lack black pigmentation, but when it is present, it’s usually relegated to the first third of the belly. After that, they have variations of pattern between None and two or three tone speckling. In that we have been out-crossing them to popular morphs and mutations in captivity, patterns and colors can be diverse, but the basic standard points to mostly tan individuals.
What to expect:
Hatchling Key Corns are dark-colored when compared to their adult counterparts, and at a glance you would not suspect they would mature to look so much like a Hypo mutant. Except for pattern, some adults have colors similar to the most hypomelanistic HYPO mutants (virtually devoid of black). I have bred Keys Corns to Hypo mutants and re-produced Hypo mutants, but that does not always happen. It would be totally understandable that someone thought the Keys Corn they had was a Hypo mutant, and bred it to a Hypo mutant – thereby infusing the Hypo mutation into that family line. Then, there is the visual confusion; is that a Hypo mutant or a Key Corn? The answer to that question is not even easily answered by breeding trials. Until we discover the distinction between those two phenotypes, it may always be confusing, but eventually, the confusion will be solved by the Hypo mutation being in many/most Key Corns. Charles Pritzel has pioneered microscopic studies that may be the very tool we need to distinguish between the hypomelanistic types.
Important Note:
The advertising images on our web site are representations of the average adult example of each morph. These images are not renderings of the actual animals being offered, (except for uniquely offered snakes found in the SURPLUS section of this web site). We do not provide pictures of individual hatchling snakes for sale, nor do we recommend that you ever choose a new pet based on an image of its neonatal form. Corns change so dramatically from hatchling to adult, they will NEVER have the same colors or contrasts throughout maturity. While most of the snakes we produce will mature to resemble the featured adult image(s) on our web site, unlike manufactured products that are respectively clones of each other, the nature of polygenic variation results in each animal being similar but not identical to others of its morph. The snake we select for you may not mature to be identical to the pictured examples, but will be chosen based on our experience of observing which neonates will mature to properly represent their respective morph. We take this responsibility very seriously, and therefore publish the guarantee that we will exchange your SMR snake if it does not mature to be like our advertised examples.
