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Hydrophis fasciatus (SCHNEIDER, 1799)

IUCN Red List - Hydrophis fasciatus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaElapidae (Hydrophiinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Striped Sea Snake
Chinese: 环纹海蛇 
SynonymHydrus Fasciatus SCHNEIDER 1799: 240
Disteira fasciata — FITZINGER 1826: 55
Pelamis Lindsayi GRAY 1831
Hydrophis gracilis SCHLEGEL 1837: 507 (not SHAW 1802) (part.)
Aturia Lindsayi — GRAY 1842
Hydrophis fasciatus — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 1349
Hydrophis chloris GÜNTHER 1864: 370 (not H. cloris DAUDIN 1803)
Hydrophis Lindsayi — ANDERSON 1871: 191
Hydrophis Lindsayi — ANDERSON 1872
Hydrophis fasciatus — PETERS 1872
Hydrophis fasciatus — BOULENGER 1896: 281
Disteira fasciata — STEJNEGER 1907: 427
Micromastophis fasciatus — PRATER 1924
Aturia fasciata — WALL 1921: 344
Hydrophis fasciatus — SMITH 1943: 464
Hydrophis fasciatus — COX et al. 1998: 34
Hydrophis fasciatus — MURPHY, COX & VORIS 1999
Hydrophis (Hydrophis) fasciatus — KHARIN 2004
Hydrophis fasciatus — NGUYEN et al. 2009
Hydrophis fasciatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 340
Hydrophis fasciatus — WANG et al. 2022 
DistributionIndian Ocean (coasts of Pakistan, India, Myanmar (= Burma), Thailand, Malaysia), Vietnam
Arabian peninsula ?
Coasts of Indonesia (Sumatra, Java)
Coasts of Australia, Philippines, New Guinea
Coasts of Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian (China)

Type locality: None given (M. A. Smith (1926: 96) stated that the type of Hydrophis fasciatus was labelled "East Indies.”  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesSyntypes: ZMB 2836, 2837 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Head small, body long and slender anteriorly; scales on thickest part of body subquadrangular or hexagonal in shape, juxtaposed or slightly imbricate; 5–6 maxillary teeth behind fangs; 2 anterior temporals; body scales in 28–33 rows around the neck, 47–58 around midbody (increase in number of rows from neck to midbody 20–27); ventral scales 414–514 (average 460); anterior part of body including head and neck dark olive to black with pale oval yellowish spots on sides, sometimes connected as crossbars; posterior, grayish; below whitish; dark rhomboidal spots may extend down the sides of the body and form complete annuli in young. Total length males 1100 mm, females 990 mm; tail length males 100 mm, females 75 mm. [after LEVITON 2003]


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CommentVenomous!

Synonymy partly after STEJNEGER 1907. Not listed by COGGER 2000.

Type species: Hydrus fasciatus SCHNEIDER 1799 is the type species of the genus Hydrophis LATREILLE in SONNINI & LATREILLE 1801.

Distribution: not on Borneo fide Stuebing et al. 2014. Reports from the Arabian peninsula (e.g. Corkill & Cochrane 1966) are doubtful; neither IUCN nor GBIF (June 2023) have any records from there.

Habitat: marine.

Character states: Voris 1977 provides a character matrix for 24 species of sea snakes and dozens of characters. Voris 1975 provides a table of ventral and caudal scale counts and vertebrae counts for 44 species of sea snakes.

Bibliography: Vigle 1978 provides a bibliography of sea snakes. 
EtymologyNamed after Latin fascia = band, for the dorsal cross-bands in this species.

The genus was named after Greek hydros (ὕδρος), water, and ophis meaning ‘snake. 
References
  • Anderson, J. 1871. On some Indian reptiles. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1871: 149-211 - get paper here
  • Anderson, J. 1872. On some Persian, Himalayan, and other Reptiles. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1872: 371-404 - get paper here
  • Bauer, A.M. & Lavilla, E.O. (eds.) 2021. J. G. Schneider’s Historiae Amphibiorum: Herpetology at the Dawn of the 19th Century. SSAR, 848 pp. - get paper here
  • Bauer, Aaron M. 1998. South Asian Herpetological specimens of historical note in the Zoological Museum, Berlin. Hamadryad 23 (2): 133-149 [1999] - get paper here
  • Bergman, R. A. M. 1962. The anatomy of Hydrophis fasciatus atriceps. Biol. Jaarb. 30: 389-416
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1896. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum, Vol. 3. London (Taylor & Francis), xiv + 727 pp. - 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
  • Corkill, N. L. and Cochrane, J. A. 1966. The snakes of the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 62 (3): 475-506 (1965) - get paper here
  • Cox, Merel J.; Van Dijk, Peter Paul; Jarujin Nabhitabhata & Thirakhupt,Kumthorn 1998. A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Ralph Curtis Publishing, 144 pp.
  • Das, I. 2012. A Naturalist's Guide to the Snakes of South-East Asia: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali. Oxford J, ohn Beaufoy Publishing - get paper here
  • de Silva, A., K. D. B. Ukuwela, A. Sivaruban & Kate L. Sanders 2011. Preliminary observations on the reproductive biology of six species of Sri Lankan sea snakes (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae). Salamandra 47 (4): 193-198 - 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
  • Duméril, A. M. C., Bibron, G. & DUMÉRIL, A. H. A., 1854. Erpétologie générale ou histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. Tome septième. Deuxième partie, comprenant l'histoire des serpents venimeux. Paris, Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret: i-xii + 781-1536 - get paper here
  • Dunson, William A.;Minton, Sherman A. 1978. Diversity, distribution, and Ecology of Philippine Marine Snakes (Reptilia, Serpentes). Journal of Herpetology 12 (3): 281-286 - get paper here
  • Fitzinger, L. 1826. Neue Classification der Reptilien nach ihren natürlichen Verwandtschaften nebst einer Verwandschafts-Tafel und einem Verzeichnisse der Reptilien-Sammlung des K. K. Zoologischen Museums zu Wien. J. G. Heubner, Wien, 66 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. 1842. Monographic Synopsis of the Water Snakes, or the Family of Hydridae. Zoological Miscellany 2: 59-68. - get paper here
  • Günther, A. 1864. The Reptiles of British India. London (Taylor & Francis), xxvii + 452 pp. - get paper here
  • Karthikeyan S. & Balasubramanian, T. 2007. Species diversity of Sea Snake (Hydrophiidae) distributed in the Coramantal Coast (East Coast of India). Int. J. Zool. res. 3 (3): 107-131
  • Kharin V E 1983. A new species of the genus Hydrophis sensu lato (Serpentes, Hydrophiidae) from the North Australian Shelf [in Russian]. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 62 (11): 1751-1753
  • Kharin, V.E. 2004. Review of Sea Snakes of the genus Hydrophis sensu stricto (Serpentes: Hydrophiidae). Russian Journal of Marine Biology 30 (6): 387-394 - get paper here
  • Kharin, V.E. 2004. A review of sea snakes of the genus Hydrophis sensu stricto (Serpentes, Hydrophiidae). [in Russian]. Biologiya Morya (Vladivostok) 30 (6): 447-454 - get paper here
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Peters, Wilhem Carl Hartwig 1873. Hr. W. Peters las über den Hydrus fasciatus Schneider und einige andere Seeschlangen. Monatsber. königl. Akad. Wiss. Berlin. 1872 (December): 848-861 - get paper here
  • Schlegel, H. 1837. Essai sur la physionomie des serpens. Partie Descriptive. La Haye (J. Kips, J. HZ. et W. P. van Stockum), 606 S. + xvi - get paper here
  • Schneider, J. G. 1799. Historiae Amphibiorum narturalis et literariae. Fasciculus primus, continens Ranas. Calamitas, Bufones, Salamandras et Hydros. Frommanni, Jena, 266 S. - get paper here
  • Sharma, R. C. 2004. Handbook Indian Snakes. AKHIL BOOKS, New Delhi, 292 pp.
  • 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.
  • Stejneger, LEONHARD H. 1907. Herpetology of Japan and adjacent territory. Bull. US Natl. Mus. 58: xx, 1-577 - 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. & Voris, H.K. 1990. Relative abundance of marine snakes on the West coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Herpetology 24 (2): 201-202 - 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)
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  • 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
  • Vigle, G.O., & Heatwole, H. 1978. A bibliography of the Hydrophiidae. Smithsonian Herp. Inf. Serv. (41): 20 pp. - get paper here
  • Voris, H.K. 1975. Dermal scale-vertebra relationships in sea snakes (Hydrophiidae). Copeia 1975 (4): 746-755 - get paper here
  • Voris, Harold K. 1977. A phylogeny of the sea snakes (Hydrophiidae). Fieldiana: Zoology 70 (4): 79-169 - get paper here
  • VORIS, HAROLD K. 2017. Diversity of Marine Snakes on Trawling Grounds in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. Tropical Natural History 17 (2): 65–87 - 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, C. G. M. Z. X., Jia, S. Y. K. T. L., & Hu, C. Z. J. 2022. An updated species checklist of amphibians and reptiles in Fujian Province, China. Biodiversity Science, 22090 - get paper here
  • 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
  • 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.
 
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