Corn snakes, Fox snakes and American rat snakes are technically classified as being of the genera Pantherophis, formerly Elaphe... does anyone actually use this classification in the US though?

i know it was a Russian herpetologist who started this whole thing, but i own a Korean rat snake and i gotta say the scalation, behavior, care, and overall look of the snake is exactly the same as our American Elaphe. i can't seem to find the original paper on this, or the revised version from 2007.

does anyone have more info or maybe just some thoughts on this?