Color Mutations in the Corn Snake (Elaphe guttata guttata): Review and Additional Breeding Data

Abstract

The corn snake, Elaphe guttata guttata, is a colorful nonvenomous serpent of the eastern United States. Two color mutations are known to occur albinism and aner ythrism. Captive breeding has demonstrated that both mutations are autosomal recessive. Snakes homozygous for albinism have no black pigment; those homozygous for anerythrism have no red pigment. Even with hereditary absence of either color, both phenotypes exhibit marked individual color variation. Further captive propagation has demonstrated that each mutation is inherited independently, and snakes homozygous for both mutations, even though lacking both black and red, retain a distinct pattern and display individual color differences. Both mutations have been reported in widely separated portions of the range. Nonallellc forms of albinism are known in other snakes but have not been reported in corn snakes. Based on our evidence, nonallelic forms of anerythrism evidently exist in this species.