- Astrotia stokesii
Taxobox | name = Stoke's seasnake
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image_caption = "Hydrus Stokesii" (syn. "Astrotia stokesii") fromJohn Lort Stokes ' 1846 "Discoveries in Australia "
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Chordata
classis =Reptilia
ordo =Squamata
subordo =Serpentes
familia =Hydrophiidae
genus = "Astrotia "
species = "A. stokesii"
binomial = "Astrotia stokesii"
binomial_authority = (Gray, 1846)Stoke's seasnake "Astrotia stokesii" is a species of sea snake.
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. [Boulenger, G. A. 1890. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia.]
Total length 5 feet.
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 AustraliaSE Asian Sea (from Pakistan to Australia), Philippine Islands.
Taxonomy
It was first published as "Hydrus Stokesii" by
John Edward Gray in an appendix to Volume 1 ofJohn Lort Stokes ' 1846 "Discoveries in Australia ".Notes
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: 15-30External links
*
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