Spine-bellied sea snake

The spine-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis hardwickii), also commonly known as Hardwicke's sea snake^[2] and Hardwicke's spine-bellied sea snake, is a species of venomous sea snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.

Hardwicke's spine-bellied seasnake
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Elapidae
Genus:	Hydrophis
Species:	H. hardwickii
Binomial name
Hydrophis hardwickii (Gray, 1834)
Synonyms[1]
Lapemis hardwickii Gray, 1834 Hypsirhina hardwickii — Hardwicke & Gray, 1835 Hydrophis hardwickii — Günther, 1864 Enhydris hardwickii — Boulenger, 1896 Lapemis hardwickii — Stejneger, 1907 Hydrophis hardwickii — Sanders et al., 2012

Etymology

The specific name, hardwickii, is in honor of English naturalist Thomas Hardwicke.^[2]

Description

H. hardwickii has the following characteristics.

• Body short, stout, neck region not less than half as thick as midbody;
• Head large;
• Dorsal scales squarish or hexagonal, juxtaposed, outer 3–4 rows larger than others, scale rows: males 23–31 around neck, females 27-35, around midbody, males 25–27, females 33–41;
• Ventrals small, usually distinct anteriorly, not so posteriorly; in males 114–186, in females 141–230;
• Head shields entire, parietals occasionally divided;
• Nostrils superior, nasals in contact with one another;
• Prefrontal usually in contact with second upper labial;
• 7–8 upper labials, 3–4 bordering eye; 1 preocular and 1–2 postoculars; 2, rarely 3, anterior temporals;
• Greenish or yellow-olive above, whitish below; 35-50 olive to dark gray dorsal bars, tapering to a point laterally, occasionally encircling body; a narrow dark ventral stripe or broad irregular band occasionally present;
• Adults often lack any pattern and are uniform olive to dark gray;
• Head pale olive to black, yellow markings on snout present or not.
• Total length 860 mm (2' 4"), tail length 85 mm (3.3").

Geographic range

H. hardwickii is located in warm waters:

• Persian Gulf (United Arab Emirates, Iran)
• Indian Ocean (Bangladesh, Burma, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India)
• South China Sea north to the coasts of Fujian and Shandong
• Strait of Taiwan
• Indoaustralian Archipelago
• North coast of Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia)
• Philippines, Cambodia.^[3]
• Pacific Ocean (Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan, Papua New Guinea)

References

1. Species Hydrophis hardwickii at The Reptile Database www.reptile-database.org.
2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Lapemis hardwickii, p. 116).
3. "WCH Clinical Toxinology Resources".

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthogylyphæ and Proteroglyphæ) .... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I–XXV. (Enhydris hardwickii, p. 301).
• Gray JE (1835). Illustrations of Indian Zoology, chiefly selected from the collection of Major-General Hardwicke. Vol. II. London (1833–1834): Adolphus Richter. (Stirling, printer). 263 pp., 95 plates. (Lapemis hardwickii, new species, Plate 87, Figure 2).
• Gray JE (1843). "Description of two new species of reptiles from the collection made during the voyages of H.M.S. Sulphur." Annals and Magazine of Natural History [First Series ] 11: 46.
• Gritis P, Voris HK (1990). "Variability and significance of parietal and ventral scales in the marine snakes of the genus Lapemis (Serpentes: Hydrophiidae), with comments on the occurrence of spiny scales in the genus." Fieldiana Zoology, New Series (56): i–iii + 1–13.
• Günther ACLG (1864). The Reptiles of British India. London: The Ray Society. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xxvii + 452 pp. + Plates I–XXVI. (Hydrophis hardwickii, p. 380 + Plate XXV, figure W).
• Leviton AE, Wogan GOU, Koo MS, Zug GR, Lucas RS, Vindum JV (2003). "The Dangerously Venomous Snakes of Myanmar: Illustrated Checklist with Keys". Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 54 (24): 407–462. (Lapemis hardwickii, p. 436).
• Smith MA (1943). The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 583 pp. (Lapemis hardwickii, pp. 468–470, Figures 148 & 149).

External links

• SnakeDatabase (http://snakedatabase.org/species/Hydrophis/hardwickii).