Hydrophis inornatus

Hydrophis inornatus, commonly known as the plain sea snake, is a species of venomous sea snake in the family Elapidae.[2]

Hydrophis inornatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Elapidae
Genus: Hydrophis
Species:
H. inornatus
Binomial name
Hydrophis inornatus
(Gray, 1849)
Synonyms
  • Chitulia inornata
    Gray, 1849
  • Hydrophis inornatus
    - Cogger, 1983
  • Aturia inornata
    - Welch, 1994[1]

Distribution

South China Sea (Philippines: Panay, etc.), Sri Lanka, Australia (North Territory, West Australia?).

Description

Hydrophis inornatus is bluish gray dorsally. The lips, lower sides, and venter are white. The tail is dark bluish gray, with three or four narrow white crossbands.

Head elongate, snout somewhat flattened. Eye large, located above the fourth upper labial. Pupil round. Neck moderately thick.

Dorsal scales hexagonal, with a central keel.[3]

Ventrals distinct, but only slightly larger than the contiguous scales. The type specimen, a male, has 240 ventrals.[4]

References
  1. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  2. "Hydrophis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 7 September 2007.
  3. Gray, J.E. 1849. Catalogue of the Specimens of Snakes in the Collection of the British Museum. Trustees of the British Museum. London. xv + 125 pp. (Chitulia inornata, p. 56.)
  4. Boulenger, G.A. 1896. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ),... Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). London. p. 290.

Further reading
  • McDowell, S.B. 1972. The genera of sea-snakes of the Hydrophis group (Serpentes: Elapidae). Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond 32: 189–247.
  • Rasmussen, A.R. 1989. An analysis of Hydrophis ornatus (Gray), H. lamberti Smith, and H. inornatus (Gray) (Hydrophiidae, Serpentes) based on samples from various localities, with remarks on feeding and breeding biology of H. ornatus. Amphibia-Reptilia 10: 397–417.
  • Rasmussen, A.R. 1994. A cladistic analysis of Hydrophis subgenus Chitulia (McDowell, 1972) (Serpentes, Hydrophiidae). Zoological Journal 111 (2): 161.


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