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Hydrophis jerdonii (GRAY, 1849)

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Higher TaxaElapidae (Hydrophiinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
SubspeciesHydrophis jerdonii jerdonii (GRAY 1849)
Hydrophis jerdonii siamensis (SMITH 1917) 
Common NamesE: Saddle-backed sea snake, Jerdon's Sea Snake
Chinese: 截吻海蛇 
SynonymKerilia Jerdonii GRAY 1849: 57
Hydrophis jerdonii — ANDERSON 1871: 190
Distira jerdonii BOULENGER 1896
Hydrophis jerdonii — BOULENGER 1912: 186
Kerilia jerdonii — WALL 1921: 386
Kerilia jerdonii — SMITH 1943: 447
Kerilia jerdoni — MURPHY, COX & VORIS 1999
Kerilia jerdonii — RASMUSSEN et al. 2011
Hydrophis jerdonii — SANDERS et al. 2012
Kerilia jerdonii — WALLACH et al. 2014: 353
Kerilia jerdonii — CHAN-ARD et al. 2015: 267
Hydrophis jerdonii — MONDAL et al. 2023

Kerilia jerdonii siamensis SMITH 1917
Hydrophis siamensis SMITH 1917: 341
Hydrophis torquatus siamensis — SMITH 1920
Kerilia jerdoni siamensis SMITH 1926: 32
Kerilia jerdonii siamensis — KHARIN 2005
Kerilia jerdonii siamensis — RASMUSSEN et al. 2011
Hydrophis jerdonii siamensis — SANDERS et al. 2012 (by implication) 
DistributionIndian Ocean (Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar (= Burma), Mergui Archipelago)
Coast of Taiwan (China), South China Sea
Bay of Bengal (to Sri Lanka Lanka)
Along coasts of W Malaysia to Gulf of Thailand
Gulf of Siam, Indonesia (Borneo)

jerdoni: India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Sea, and from Strait of Malacca

siamensis: Vietnam, from East Malaysia, Gulf of Thailand to China and Taiwan.

Type locality: Madras, India  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH III.8.1.a
Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.3.78, collected by M.A. Smith, 1917 [siamensis] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Body subcylindrical, nearly uniform diameter throughout; scales keeled and imbricate, in 17–23 longitudinal rows, 17 on neck, 21–23 (19–21 for the Bay of Bengal) at midbody; head short; pre-frontals usually not in contact with upper labials; 6 upper labials, 3–4 bordering eye; 1 pre- and 1 postocular; 1 large anterior temporal; ventrals 225–253 for the Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Siam (247–278 further east), small, distinct throughout, usually entire; olive above, yellowish or white below, with black dorsal spots of crossbars that form complete bands, especially in young. Total length 1000 mm, tail length 100 mm. [after LEVITON 2003]


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CommentVenomous!

History: Smith described siamensis twice as new; in 1917 as a species and in 1926 as subspecies (see synonymy).

Subspecies: The status of the two subspecies is questioned by several authors (see Rasmussen & Andersen 1990)

Type species: This species is the type species of the genus Kerilia Gray, 1849.

Habitat: marine.

Distribution: not in Singapore or not established there (Figueroa et al. 2023).

Type species: Kerilia Jerdonii GRAY 1849: 57 is the type species of the genus Kerilia GRAY 1849. 
EtymologyNamed after Thomas Claverhill Jerdon (1811-1872), British physician, zoologist, and botanist who became an Assistant Surgeon in the East India Company. 
References
  • Anderson, J. 1871. On some Indian reptiles. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1871: 149-211 - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Bussarawitt,S.; Rasmussen, A.R. & Andersen, M. 1989. A preliminary study on sea snakes (Hydrophiidae) from Phuket Harbor, Phuket Island, Thailand. Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc., Bangkok 37 (2): 209-225
  • Chan-ard, T., Parr, J.W.K. & Nabhitabhata, J. 2015. A field guide to the reptiles of Thailand. Oxford University Press, NY, 352 pp. [see book reviews by Pauwels & Grismer 2015 and Hikida 2015 for corrections] - get paper here
  • Dowling, H.G., & Jenner, J.V. 1988. Snakes of Burma: checklist of reported species and bibliography. Smithsonian Herp. Inf. Serv. (76): 19 pp. - get paper here
  • Ganesh, S., Nandhini, T., Samuel, V., Sreeraj, C., Abhilash, K., Purvaja, R., & Ramesh, R. 2019. Marine snakes of Indian coasts: historical resume, systematic checklist, toxinology, status, and identification key. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 11(1), 13132-13150 - get paper here
  • Gray, J. E. 1849. Catalogue of the specimens of snakes in the collection of the British Museum. Edward Newman, London, i-xv; 1-125. - get paper here
  • Kharin, V. E. 2006. An Annotated Checklist of Sea Snakes of Vietnam, with Notes on a New Record of the Yellow-Lipped Sea Krait, Laticauda colubrina (Schneider, 1799)(Laticaudidae, Hydrophiidae). Russian Journal of Marine Biology 32 (4): 223–228. - get paper here
  • Kharin, Vladimir E.; Jakob Hallermann 2009. Annotated catalogue of sea kraits (Laticaudidae) and sea snakes (Hydrophiidae) of the herpetological collection of the Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg. Mitt. hamb. zool. Mus. Inst. 106: 51-67
  • Leviton, A.E., R.M. Brown, and C.D. Siler. 2014. The dangerously venomous snakes of the Philippine Archipelago. in The Coral Triangle: The 2011 Hearst Biodiversity Philippine Expedition (G.C. Williams and T.M. Gosliner, eds.). California Academy of Sciences, USA, Pp 473–530
  • Leviton, Alan E.; Guinevere O.U. Wogan; Michelle S. Koo; George R. Zug; Rhonda S. Lucas and Jens V. Vindum 2003. The Dangerously Venomous Snakes of Myanmar Illustrated Checklist with Keys. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 54 (24): 407–462 - get paper here
  • Mondal, S., Ganesh, S. R., & Raghunathan, C. 2023. Some rare species of sea snakes (Squamata: Serpentes: Elapidae: Hydrophiinae: Hydrophis, Microcephalophis) from the Indian Coasts and nearby waters, lodged in major systematic Indian zoological collections. Bonn zoological Bulletin 72 (2): 209–222 - get paper here
  • Murphy,J.C.; Cox,M.J. & Voris,H.K. 1999. A key to the sea snakes in the gulf of Thailand. Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 47: 95-108
  • Nguyen, S.V., Ho, C.T. and Nguyen, T.Q. 2009. Herpetofauna of Vietnam. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 768 pp.
  • RASMUSSEN, ARNE REDSTED; JOHAN ELMBERG, PETER GRAVLUND & IVAN INEICH 2011. Sea snakes (Serpentes: subfamilies Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae) in Vietnam: a comprehensive checklist and an updated identification key. Zootaxa 2894: 1–20 - get paper here
  • Rasmussen,A.R. & Andersen,M. 1990. The sea snake Kerilia jerdoni Gray (1849): First records from Andaman Sea, Phuket Island, Thailand, with remarks on the two subspecies. The Snake 22: 131-133
  • Sanders, K.L.; Michael S.Y. Lee, Mumpuni, Terry Bertozzi, Arne R. Rasmussen 2012. Multilocus phylogeny and recent rapid radiation of the viviparous sea snakes (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 66 (3): 575-591 - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 2004. Handbook Indian Snakes. AKHIL BOOKS, New Delhi, 292 pp.
  • Smith, M.A. 1917. Preliminary diagnoses of four new sea snakes. J. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam 2: 340 - get paper here
  • Smith, M.A. 1920. On sea snakes from the coasts of the Malay peninsula, Siam and Cochin-China. J. Fed. Malay St. Mus. Singapore 10 (1): 1-63 - get paper here
  • Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp.
  • Somaweera, R. & N. Somaweera 2009. An overview of Sri Lankan Sea snakes with an annotated checklist and a field key. Taprobanica 1 (1): 43-54 - get paper here
  • Stuebing, R.B. & INGER, R.F. 1999. A field guide to the snakes of Borneo. Natural history Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, 254 pp. [corrections in HR 31: 124]. - get paper here
  • Stuebing, R.B., Inger, R.F. & Lardner, B. 2014. A field guide to the snakes of Borneo, second edition. Natural history Publications (Borneo)
  • Taylor,E.H. 1965. The serpents of Thailand and adjacent waters. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 45 (9): 609-1096 - get paper here
  • Ukuwela, K.D.B., de Silva, A., Sivaruban, A. et al. 2022. Diversity, distribution, and natural history of the marine snakes of Sri Lanka. Marine Biodiversity 52, 24 (2022) - get paper here
  • Wall, F. 1918. Notes on a Collection of Sea Snakes from Madras. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 25: 599-607 - get paper here
  • Wall, FRANK 1921. Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon. Colombo Mus. (H. R. Cottle, govt. printer), Colombo. xxii, 581 pages - 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.
  • Wang, Kai; Jinlong Ren, Hongman Chen, Zhitong Lyu, Xianguang Guo Ke Jiang, Jinmin Chen, Jiatang Li, Peng Guo, Yingyong Wang, Jing Che 2020. The updated checklists of amphibians and reptiles of China. Biodiversity Science 28 (2): 189-218 - get paper here
  • Weinell, Jeffrey L.; Errol Hooper, Alan E. Leviton, Rafe M. Brown 2019. Illustrated Key to the Snakes of the Philippines. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (4) 66 (1): 1-49 - get paper here
  • Whitaker, Romulus and Ashok Captain 2004. Snakes of India. Draco Books, 500 pp., reprinted 2007 - get paper here
  • Zhao, E.M. 2006. The snakes of China [in Chinese]. Hefei, China, Anhui Sience & Technology Publ. House, Vol. I, 372 pp., Vol. II (color plates), 280 pp.
  • Zhao,E. & Adler,K. 1993. Herpetology of China. SSAR, Oxford/Ohio, 1-522
 
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