Striped Sea Snake Hydrophis fasciatus is a species of sea snake.

Anatomy

Head small, body long and slender anteriorly; scales on thickest part of body subquadrangular or hexagonal in shape, juxtaposed or slightly imbricate; 5-6 maxillary teeth behind fangs; 2 anterior temporals; body scales in 28-33 rows around the neck, 47-58 around midbody (increase in number of rows from neck to midbody 20-27); ventral scales 414-514 (average 460); anterior part of body including head and neck dark olive to black with pale oval yellowish spots on sides, sometimes connected as crossbars; posterior, grayish; below whitish; dark rhomboidal spots may extend down the sides of the body and form complete annuli in young. Total length males 1100 mm, females 990 mm; tail length males 100 mm, females 75 mm.

Distribution

Indian Ocean (coasts of Pakistan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia)
Coasts of Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Borneo)
Coasts of Australia, Philippines, New Guinea
Coasts of Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian (China)