Astrotia stokesii

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Stoke's seasnake
Hydrus Stokesii (syn. Astrotia stokesii) from John Lort Stokes' 1846 Discoveries in Australia
Hydrus Stokesii (syn. Astrotia stokesii) from John Lort Stokes' 1846 Discoveries in Australia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Hydrophiidae
Genus: Astrotia
Species: A. stokesii
Binomial name
Astrotia stokesii
(Gray, 1846)

Stoke's seasnake Astrotia stokesii is a species of sea snake.

Contents

[edit] Description

Head moderate; body stout. Rostral as deep as broad; nasals shorter than the frontal, more than twice as long as the suture between the prefrontals; frontal longer than broad, as long as or slightly longer than its distance from the rostral; one pre- and two postoculars, 9 or 10 upper labials, fourth, fifth, and sixth catering the eye, if not divided to form a series of suboculars ; two or three superposed anterior temporals; no chin-shields. 39 to 47 scales lound the neck, 48 to 53 round the middle of the body; scales much imbricate, pointed, keeled, the keel frequently broken up into two tubercles. Ventrals usually distinct only quite anteriorly, further back in pairs and not larger than the adjoining scales; 240-267. Yellowiah or pale brownish, with broad black dorsal cross bands, or with complete black annuli.[1]

Total length 5 feet.

[edit] Distribution

China Sea and Strait of Taiwan. Coastal areas from W India and Sri Lanka Lanka wast through Gulf of Siam to China Sea, W Malaysia, Indonesia east to New Guinea and the northern and eastern coast of Australia SE Asian Sea (from Pakistan to Australia), Philippine Islands.

[edit] Taxonomy

It was first published as Hydrus Stokesii by John Edward Gray in an appendix to Volume 1 of John Lort Stokes' 1846 Discoveries in Australia.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Boulenger, G. A. 1890. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia.

[edit] References

  • Cogger,H.G. 2000 Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.
  • Dunson, William A.;Minton, Sherman A. 1978 Diversity, distribution, and Ecology of Philippine Marine Snakes (Reptilia, Serpentes) Journal of Herpetology 12 (3): 281-286
  • Rasmussen,A.R. 1997 Systematics of sea snakes: a critical review. In: Thorpe,R.S., Wüster,W. & Malhotra,A. (eds.) Venomous snakes - ecology, evolution and snakebite. Clarendon Press (Oxford)/Symp. zool. Soc. Lond. 70: 15-30

[edit] External links

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