Thai National Parks

Hydrophis viperinus, commonly known as the viperine sea snake, is a species of venomous sea snake in the family Elapidae (Hydrophiinae).

Diagnostic characters

Scales hexagonal, juxtaposed, in 27–34 rows on the neck, 37–50 at midbody; ventrals 226–274, anteriorly about half the width of the body, narrowing posterior to about twice the width of the adjacent scales, or slightly less; head shields entire, nostrils superior, nasal shields in contact with one another; prefrontals longer than broad, not in contact with upper labials; 1, rarely 2, pre- and 1–2 postoculars; 7-9 upper labials, 3–5 bordering eye (sometimes only 3–4 or 4–5); usually 1 anterior temporal, occasionally 2 or 3; body color, more or less bicolored, gray above, white below, the two usually clearly demarcated on the sides, often with 25–35 dark rhomboidal spots, rarely with dark bands. Total length: males 925 mm, females 820 mm; tail length: males 100 mm, females 80 mm

Distribution

Northern coasts of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific: from the Persian Gulf to around India to Indonesia and southern China. IUCN lists the following countries: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India (Andaman Is., Nicobar Is.), Indonesia, Iran Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

This article uses material from Wikipedia released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike Licence 3.0. Eventual photos shown in this page may or may not be from Wikipedia, please see the license details for photos in photo by-lines.