Hydrophis fasciatus
Hydrophis fasciatus, commonly known as the striped sea snake, is a species of venomous sea snake in the family Elapidae.
Description
Hydrophis fasciatus has a small head, long body and is slender anteriorly. The scales on thickest part of body are subquadrangular or hexagonal in shape, juxtaposed or slightly imbricate. It has 5-6 maxillary teeth behind fangs and 2 anterior temporals.Body scales in 28-33 rows around the neck, 47-58 around midbody ; ventral scales 414-514.
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.
Distribution
- Indian Ocean.
- Coasts of Indonesia.
- Coasts of Australia, Philippines, New Guinea.
- Coasts of Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian.