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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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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