Disteira Major
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The olive-headed sea snake (''Hydrophis major''), also known as the greater sea snake, is a species of venomous
sea snake Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, wher ...
in the family Elapidae.


Geographic range

It is found in the eastern Indian and western central Pacific Ocean in the waters off southern New Guinea,
New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
, and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
( New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia).


Description

Yellowish or pale brownish dorsally, with darker brown or blackish crossbars. Crossbars may be all the same width, or they may be alternately broad and narrow. White ventrally, with or without small dark brown spots. Adults may attain a total length of , with a tail long. Dorsal scales imbricate (overlapping), strongly keeled on the neck, weakly keeled on the body; arranged in 31–36 rows around the neck, in 36 to 41 rows at midbody. Ventrals 200–236. Head moderate. Body stout. Rostral as broad as deep. Nasals shorter than the frontal, more than twice as long as the suture between the prefrontals. Frontal longer than broad, as long as its distance from the end of the snout. One preocular and two postoculars. Two superposed anterior temporals. Seven or eight upper labials, third and fourth entering the eye. Only one pair of small chin shields. Ventrals distinguishable, but very small, either smooth or bicarinate. 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. xiv + 727 pp., Plates I–XXV. (''Distira major'', pp. 289–290.)


Footnotes


Further reading

* Cogger, H.G. 1975. The sea snakes of Australia and New Guinea. pp. 59–139 in Dunson, W. (ed.) ''The Biology of Sea Snakes''. Baltimore University Park Press. * Cogger, H.G. 2000. ''Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia'', 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing. Sanibel Island, Florida. 808 pp. * 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. * Shaw, G. 1802. ''General Zoology or Systematic Natural History, Vol. III., Part II. Amphibia''. G. Kearsley. (Thomas Davison, printer.) London. pp. 313–615. (''Hydrus major'', pp. 558–559.) {{Taxonbar, from=Q2591422 Hydrophis Reptiles of the Indian Ocean Snakes of Australia Reptiles of the Northern Territory Reptiles of Queensland Reptiles of Western Australia Reptiles of Indonesia Snakes of New Caledonia Reptiles of Papua New Guinea Taxa named by George Shaw Reptiles described in 1802 Snakes of New Guinea