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Aipysurus duboisii BAVAY, 1869

IUCN Red List - Aipysurus duboisii - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaElapidae (Hydrophiinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Reef shallows seasnake 
SynonymAipysurus duboisii BAVAY 1869: 33
Aipysurus australis SAUVAGE 1877: 114
Aipysurus australis — BOULENGER 1896
Pelagophis lubricus PETERS & DORIA 1878
Aipysurus duboisii — SMITH 1974: 99
Aipysurus duboisii — COGGER 1983: 242
Aipysurus duboisii — COGGER 2000: 701
Aipysurus duboisii — WILSON & SWAN 2010
Aipysurus duboisii — WALLACH et al. 2014: 22 
DistributionAustralia (Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia), Timor Sea (Indonesia),
New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, Lifou (= Lifu), S Papua New Guinea

Type locality: Lifu (as Lifou), Loyalty Ils., New Caledonia.

Type locality:  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesHolotype: MMBR (Marine Museum Brest, fide Smith 1926).
Holotype: MNHP (not found), from Australia [Aipysurus australis].
Holotype: MSNG 30765 (given as MCG), from Yule Is., Papua New Guinea (erroneously referred to Aipysurus laevis by Capocaccia 1961). [Pelagophis lubricus] 
DiagnosisSize: The largest specimen collected in the Chesterfield Reefs measured 83 cm (Minton and Dunson 1985), although maximum size for the species is slightly more than 1.4 m (Bauer & Sadlier 2000: 232).

Scalation: Ventrals 150-175, anal divided, subcaudals 23-35, all single, 19 scale rows at midbody. Dorsal scales smooth orweakly keeled. Head shields fragmented and irregular (Bauer & Sadlier 2000: 232).

Color: Typlcally dark brown or purplish above with pale interscale areas visible. Flanks with alternating dark brown and whitish bands or wedges (Bauer & Sadlier 2000: 232).

Variation: Color pattern is highly variable and individuals may be quite pale, with the dark dorsal coloration limited to the centers of individual scales (Bauer & Sadlier 2000: 232).

Comparisons:The enlarged ventral scales and large numbers of supralabials distinguish this species from all sea snakes except its congener, Aipysurus laevis. It may be distinguished from this species by its small, fragmented head shields and reduced midbody scale rows (19 versus 21) (Bauer & Sadlier 2000: 232).

See also description in Smith 1974: 99 
CommentVenomous! Synonymy after COGGER 1983.

Habitat: marine. 
EtymologyNamed after Charles Frederic Dubois (1804-1867), Belgian naturalist. 
References
  • Bauer, A. M. & SADLIER, R. A. 2000. The herpetofauna of New Caledonia. Contributions to Herpetology, 17; Society for Study Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca, New York.
  • Bavay,A. 1869. Catalogue des Reptiles de las Nouvelle - Caledonie et description d'especes nouvelles. Memoires Societe Linniene de Normandie 15: 1-37
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Capocaccia, L. 1961. Catalogo dei tipi di Rettili del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova [MSNG]. Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Giacomo Doria 72: 86-111 - get paper here
  • Cogger, H. G. 1975. The sea snakes of Australia and New Guinea. pp. 59-139 in Dunson, W. (ed. ) The Biology of Sea Snakes. Baltimore: University Park Press
  • Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here
  • Cogger, H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.
  • Crowe-Riddell JM, Snelling EP, Watson AP, Suh AK, Partridge JC, Sanders KL. 2016. The evolution of scale sensilla in the transition from land to sea in elapid snakes. Open Biol. 6: 160054 - get paper here
  • Gower, D.; Garrett, K. & Stafford, P. 2012. Snakes. Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY,<br />144 p..
  • Kharin, V. E. 1981. A review of sea snakes of the genus Aipysurus (Serpentes, Hydrophiidae). Zoological Zhurnal 60 (2): 257-264
  • Kharin, V.E.; Cheblyukov, V.P. 2006. On a new record of a poorly known and rare sea snake Aipysurus tenuis Lönnberg et Andersson, 1913 (Serpentes: Hydrophiidae) in the waters of Australia. Russian Journal of Marine Biology 32 (3): 194-197. - get paper here
  • O'Shea,M. 1996. A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea. Independent Publishing, Port Moresby, xii + 239 pp. - get paper here
  • O’Shea, M. 2018. The Book of Snakes. Ivy Press / Quarto Publishing, London, - get paper here
  • Peters, Wilhem Carl Hartwig and G. Doria. 1878. Catalogo dei retilli e dei batraci raccolti da O. Beccari, L. M. D'Alberts e A. A. Bruijn. nella sotto-regione Austro-Malese. Annali del Museo Civico de Storia Naturale di Genova. ser. 1, 13: 323-450 - get paper here
  • Phillips, Steve 1991. A New South Wales record for Aipysurus duboisii Bavay, 1869 (Hydrophiidae). Herpetofauna (Sydney) 21 (1): 35
  • Porter, Robert; Irwin, Steve; Irwin, Terri;Rodrigues, Keith 1997. Records of marine snake species from the Hey-Embley and Mission Rivers, far North Queensland. Herpetofauna (Sydney) 27 (2): 2-7
  • RASMUSSEN, ARNE REDSTED; KATE LAURA SANDERS, MICHAEL L. GUINEA & ANDREW P. AMEY 2014. Sea snakes in Australian waters (Serpentes: subfamilies Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae)—a review with an updated identification key. Zootaxa 3869 (4): 351–371 - get paper here
  • Redfield, J. A., Holmes, J. C. & Holmes, R. D. 1978. Sea snakes of the eastern Gulf of Carpentaria. Aust. J Mar. Freshwat. Res. 29: 325-334 - get paper here
  • Sauvage, H. E. 1877. Sur quelques ophidiens d'espèces nouvelles ou peu connues de la collection du Muséum. Bull. Soc. Philom. (7) 1: 107-115 - get paper here
  • Shine, Richard; Claire Goiran, Catherine Shilton, Shai Meiri, Gregory P Brown 2019. The life aquatic: an association between habitat type and skin thickness in snakes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, blz136 - get paper here
  • Smith, L. A. 1974. The sea snakes of Western Australia (Serpentes: Elapidae: Hydrophiinae) with a description of a new subspecies. Rec. West. Aust. Mus. 3: 93-110 - get paper here
  • Smith, M. A. 1926. Monograph on the Sea Snakes. (Hydrophiidae). London: British Museum, xvii + 130 pp.
  • Swan, G.; Sadlier, R.; Shea, G. 2017. A field guide to reptiles of New South Wales. Reed New Holland, 328 pp.
  • Udyawer, V., Oxenham, K., Hourston, M., & Heupel, M. 2021. Distribution, fisheries interactions and assessment of threats to Australia’s sea snakes. Report to the National Environmental Science Program, Marine Biodiversity Hub. - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp.
 
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