Fordonia leucobalia
Encyclopedia
The aquatic snake
Fordonia leucobalia is known by the common names crab-eating water snake and white-bellied mangrove snake. It is a common resident of mangrove swamps
and tropical tidal wetland
s from Southeast Asia
to the coasts of Northern Australia
.
Individual F. leucobalia reach up to a meter in length, and are brown or gray in color with a white belly. There is significant color variation. Some have spots. The anatomy reflects the snake's water-living lifestyle: the eyes are located atop the head, and the nostrils have valves that close when the snake dives.
The snake eats small prey that live in its habitat, such as frogs and small fish, and it specializes in crab
s, hence its name. Like other homalopsines
, F. leucobalia bears live young.
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
Fordonia leucobalia is known by the common names crab-eating water snake and white-bellied mangrove snake. It is a common resident of mangrove swamps
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
and tropical tidal wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
s from Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
to the coasts of Northern Australia
Northern Australia
The term northern Australia is generally known to include two State and Territories, being Queensland and the Northern Territory . The part of Western Australia north of latitude 26° south—a definition widely used in law and State government policy—is also usually included...
.
Individual F. leucobalia reach up to a meter in length, and are brown or gray in color with a white belly. There is significant color variation. Some have spots. The anatomy reflects the snake's water-living lifestyle: the eyes are located atop the head, and the nostrils have valves that close when the snake dives.
The snake eats small prey that live in its habitat, such as frogs and small fish, and it specializes in crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s, hence its name. Like other homalopsines
Homalopsinae
Homalopsinae is a subfamily of Colubridae which contains some 10 genera and about 4 dozen species. They are typically stout-bodied water snakes, and all are mildly venomous. The genus Brachyorrhos may belong elsewhere...
, F. leucobalia bears live young.