Show & Tell
No, I did not make a Halloween costume for this Scaleless corn. Didn’t see that she was sporting some eye brows (pseudo horns?) until I took the pic. Bonus Pic . . .
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Skin was retained from her last shed a few DAYs ago in only one place (the center of her head, between her eyes). As the scale(s) dried, the lateral corners curled up, giving her this creepy mask effect. The obsolete head scales pulled right off (meant to be sloughed with the rest of the dead skin generation), of course, but thought you might appreciate a theme pic on this DAY of masquerades?? HoliDAY not-withstanding, the arrangement of anomalously shaped facial scales is unique to each Scaleless corn snake. As I’ve said before, if we were to genetically design a successful Scaleless corn snake, there is little we could do to improve on what we naturally see in these bazaar mutants. They have armor in places that would receive the most potential trauma, wear, and damage (around the mouth, rostrum, and belly). 
Compared to fully scaled corns, closeups of the faces of some scaleless corns can remind us of Halloween all year long? Here’s a pic from the same photo shoot as a 2016 S.O.T.D.. A close-up head shot shows more of the facial armor (scales) common to most Scaleless corns; atypically sized and shaped, random, sparsely distributed and not always bi-laterally symmetric scales that are seemingly strategically located to help protect the mouth and rostral junctions from some of the potential infections that would surely plague snakes without scales at critical mouth junctures? Not exactly a face that even a mother could love, we’re pleased that these scales are around the mouth (and belly) for added protection from wear-and-tear.
