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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.
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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