You are here » home › search results › Hydrophis spiralis

Hydrophis spiralis (SHAW, 1802)

IUCN Red List - Hydrophis spiralis - Least Concern, LC
iNaturalist logo

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Hydrophis spiralis?

Add your own observation of
Hydrophis spiralis »

Find more photos by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaElapidae (Hydrophiinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Yellow Sea Snake, Blotch-backed giant sea snake
Farsi: Mâr-e daryâï-ye zard
G: Schwarzschwänzige Wasserschlange (Wagler 1828) 
SynonymHydrus spiralis SHAW 1802: 564
Hydrophis brugmansii BOIE 1827: 554
Hydrophis melanurus WAGLER 1828
Hydrophis sublaevis GRAY 1842
Hydrophis spiralis GRAY 1849
Hydrophis spiralis — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 1354
Hydrophis robusta GÜNTHER 1864
Hydrophis rappii JAN 1872 in Jan and Sordelli, 1870-1881
Hydrophis temporalis BLANFORD 1881: 680
Hydrophis spiralis — ANDERSON 1872
Hydrophis bishopii MURRAY 1884
Hydrophis aurifasciata MURRAY 1886
Hydrophis melanocinctus WALL 1906
Hydrophis brugmansii — BOULENGER 1912: 184
Distira brugmansi — STONE 1913
Lioselasma [sic] spiralis — WALL 1921: 353
Hydrophis spiralis — SMITH 1943: 453
Leioselasma spiralis — PRATER 1924
Leioselasma spiralis — KHARIN 1984
Leioselasma spiralis — WELCH 1994: 72
Leiocephalus spiralis — DAS 1996: 61
Leioselasma spiralis — STUEBING & INGER 1999: 217
Hydrophis spiralis — MURPHY, COX & VORIS 1999
Hydrophis spiralis — BAUER & SADLIER 2000
Hydrophis spiralis — DAVID et al. 2004
Leioselasma spiralis — KHARIN 2005
Hydrophis spiralis — MURTHY 2010
Hydrophis spiralis — RASMUSSEN et al. 2011
Hydrophis spiralis — SANDERS et al. 2012
Leioselasma spiralis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 368
Hydrophis spiralis — REZAIE-ATAGHOLIPOUR et al. 2016 
DistributionIndian Ocean: Persian Gulf, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India (Gujarat), Indonesia (Borneo), Malaysia, Philippines, China, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia/Loyalty Islands, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore

Type locality: Indian Ocean  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 1946.1.6.94 
DiagnosisDIAGNOSIS: Scales on thickest part of body with rounded or pointed tips, imbricate; 6–7 maxillary teeth behind fangs; normally 1 anterior temporal; 6–8 upper labials; 25–1 scale rows around neck, –8 around midbody (increase from neck to midbody 4–8); ven-trals 295–62, distinct throughout, about twice as broad as adjacent body scales; yellowish or yel-lowish- green above, dorsal scales edged with black, 41–46 narrow black bands encircle body, the bands usually less than one-third the width of the lighter interspaces; head in young black with yel-low horseshoe-shaped marking, in adult head usually yellow. Total length males 1620 mm, females 180 mm; tail length males 140 mm, females 120 mm. [after LEVITON 200, see also REZAIE-ATAGHOLIPOUR et al. 2016] 
CommentVenomous!

Distribution: Not listed by BAUER & VINDUM 1990 for New Caledonia/Loyalty Islands.

Synonymy: V. WALLACH (pers. comm.)

Habitat: marine. 
References
  • Anderson, J. 1872. On some Persian, Himalayan, and other Reptiles. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1872: 371-404 - get paper here
  • 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.
  • Bauer, Aaron M.;Vindum, Jens V. 1990. A checklist and key to the herpetofauna of New Caledonia, with remarks on biogeography. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 47 (2): 17-45 - get paper here
  • Blanford, W.T. 1881. On a collection of Persian reptiles recently added to the British Museum. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1881: 671-682 - get paper here
  • Buzás, Balázs; Balázs Farkas, Eszter Gulyás & Csaba Géczy 2018. The sea snakes (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae) of Fujairah. Tribulus 26: 4-31
  • Carranza S, Xipell M, Tarroso P, Gardner A, Arnold EN, Robinson MD, et al. 2018. Diversity, distribution and conservation of the terrestrial reptiles of Oman (Sauropsida, Squamata). PLoS One 13 (2): e0190389 - get paper here
  • Carranza, Salvador; Johannes Els; Bernat Burriel-Carranza 2021. A field guide to the reptiles of Oman. Madrid : Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 223 pp. [review in HR 53 (3): 531] - 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
  • 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
  • DAVID, Patrick; MEREL J. COX, OLIVIER S. G. PAUWELS, LAWAN CHANHOME AND KUMTHORN THIRAKHUPT 2004. Book Review - When a bookreview is not sufficient to say all: an in-depth analysis of a recent book on the snakes of Thailand, with an updated checklist of the snakes of the Kingdom. The Natural History Journal of Chulalongkorn University 4(1): 47-80 - 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
  • FIGUEROA, ALEX; MARTYN E.Y. LOW, KELVIN K.P. LIM 2023. Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution. Zootaxa 5287 (1): 001–378 - get paper here
  • Frith,C.B. 1977. The sea snake Hydrophis spiralis (SHAW); a new species of the fauna of Thailand. Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. (Bangkok) 26: 339-341
  • 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
  • Gardner, A.S. 2013. The amphibians and reptiles of Oman and the UAE. Edition Chimaira, 480 pp.
  • Gasperetti,J. 1988. Snakes of Arabia. Fauna of Saudi Arabia 9: 169-450
  • Grandison, A. G. C. 1978. Snakes of West Malaysia and Singapore. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 81 [1977]: 283-303 - get paper here
  • Hosseinian Yousefkhani SS, Yasser A, Naser M, Rezaie-Atagholipour M, Askari Hesni M, Yousefabadi F, Rastegar Pouyani E 2023. Genetic diversity among sea snakes of the genus Hydrophis (Elapidae, Reptilia) in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. ZooKeys 1158: 121-131 - get paper here
  • Ineich I.; Rasmussen A R. 1997. Sea snakes from New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands (Elapidae, Laticaudinae and Hydrophiinae). Zoosystema 19 (2-3): 185-192.
  • Jongbloed, M. 2000. Field Guide to the reptiles and amphibians of the UAE - Wild about reptiles. Barkers Trident Communications, 116 pp.
  • Kamali, Kamran 2020. A Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Iran. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (www.chimaira.de). 574 pp.
  • 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 1984. A review of sea snakes of the group Hydrophis sensu lato (Serpentes, Hydrophiidae). 3. The genus Leioselasma [in Russian]. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 63 (10): 1535-1546
  • Kharin, V.E. 2005. On new findings of a rare sea snake Leioselasma czeblukovi Kharin, 1984, with remarks on species composition and taxonomical position of the genus Leioselasma Lacepede, 1804, (Serpentes: Hydrophiidae). Russian Journal of Marine Biology 31 (5): 269-272. - 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
  • Leviton, Alan E.; Cameron D. Siler, Jeffrey L. Weinell, and Rafe M. Brown 2018. Synopsis of the Snakes of the Philippines. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 64 (14): 399-568 - get paper here
  • Madawala, Majintha; Thilina D Surasinghe, Anslem De Silva, Dinesh Gabadage, Madhava Botejue, Indika Peabotuwage, Dushantha Kandambi, Suranjan Karunarathna 2019. Reappraisal of Herpetofauna Recorded from Jaffna Peninsula in Northern Sri Lanka with Remarks on Conservation, Diversity, and Distribution. Russ. J. Herpetol. 26 (5): 247-260 - get paper here
  • Manzoor, U.; M. Z. Khan and M. Asif Iqbal 2019. DISTRIBUTION, STATUS AND CONSERVATION OF REPTILIAN FAUNA IN THE COASTAL AREAS OF KARACHI WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MARINE TURTLES. The J. Anim. Plant Sci. 29(6): - 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
  • Murthy, T.S.N. 2010. The reptile fauna of India. B.R. Publishing, New Delhi, 332 pp.
  • Patel, Harshil; and Raju Vyas 2019. Reptiles of Gujarat, India: Updated Checklist, Distribution, and Conservation Status. Herpetology Notes 12: 765-777 - get paper here
  • Rajabizadeh, M. 2018. Snakes of Iran. [in Farsi] Tehran: Iranshenasi, 496 pp. [2017 ?] - get paper here
  • Rasmussen, A. R. & I. INEICH 2000. Sea snakes of New Caledonia and surrounding waters (Serpentes: Elapidae): first report on the occurence of Lapemis curtus and description of new species from the genus Hydrophis. Hamadryad 25 (2): 91-99 - get paper here
  • 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
  • RASTEGAR-POUYANI, NASRULLAH; HAJI GHOLI KAMI, MEHDI RAJABZADEH, SOHEILA SHAFIEI AND STEVEN CLEMENT ANDERSON 2008. Annotated Checklist of Amphibians and Reptiles of Iran. Iranian Journal of Animal Biosystematics 4 (1): 7-30
  • Rezaie-Atagholipour M, Ghezellou P, Hesni MA, Dakhteh SMH, Ahmadian H, Vidal N 2016. Sea snakes (Elapidae, Hydrophiinae) in their westernmost extent: an updated and illustrated checklist and key to the species in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. ZooKeys 622: 129–164, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.622.9939 - get paper here
  • Rieken, F. (Edited by) 1969. Distribution of sea snakes in the South China Sea and East Indian Ocean by V. P. Shuntov. Smithsonian Herp. Inf. Serv. (18): 1-4 - get paper here
  • 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.
  • Shaw, G. 1802. General Zoology, or Systematic Natural History. Vol.3, part 2. G. Kearsley, Thomas Davison, London: 313-615 - 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
  • Stone, F.H.S. & Wall, F. 1913. An unusually large Sea-Snake (Distira brugmansi). J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 22: 403 - 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)
  • 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
  • Volsøe, H. 1939. The sea-snakes of the Iranian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Danish Scientific Investigation in Iran 1: 9-45
  • 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
  • Vyas, Raju 2007. Present conservation scenario of reptile fauna in Gujarat State, India. Indian Forester, Oct 2007: 1381-1394 - get paper here
  • Wagler, J. 1828. Descriptiones et icones amphibiorum. Vol. 1. J. G. Cotttae, Stuttgartiae, Monachii et Tubingiae, i-xii pp. - 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.
  • 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
  • Yaghmour, Fadi; Johannes Els, Clara Jimena Rodríguez-Zarate, Brendan Whittington-Jones 2023. Marine Reptiles of the United Arab Emirates. In: J. A. Burt (ed.), A Natural History of the Emirates. Springer, Cham, pp. 585-619 [2024] - get paper here
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:

As link to this species use URL address:

https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Hydrophis&species=spiralis

without field 'search_param'. Field 'search_param' is used for browsing search result.



Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator