Yellow-lipped Sea Krait

The yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina), also known as the banded sea krait or colubrine sea krait, is a species of highly venomous snake found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceanic waters. The snake has distinctive black stripes and a yellow snout, with a paddle-like tail for use in swimming.

It spends much of its time under water to hunt, but returns to land to digest, rest, and reproduce. It has very potent neurotoxic venom, which it uses to prey on eels and small fish. Because of its affinity to land, the yellow-lipped sea krait often encounters humans, but the snake is not aggressive and only attacks when feeling threatened.

Description

The head of a yellow-lipped sea krait is black, with lateral nostrils and an undivided rostral scale. The upper lip and snout are characteristically colored yellow, and the yellow color extends backward on each side of the head above the eye to the temporal scales.

The body of the snake is subcylindrical, and is taller than it is wide. Its upper surface is typically a shade of blueish gray, while the belly is yellowish, with wide ventral scales that stretch from a third to more than half of the width of the body. Black rings of about uniform width are present throughout the length of the snake, but the rings narrow or are interrupted at the belly. The midbody is covered with 21 to 25 longitudinal rows of imbricated (overlapping) dorsal scales. The dorsal and lateral scales can be used to differentiate between this species and the similar yellow-lipped New Caledonian sea krait, which typically has fewer rows of scales and scales that narrow or fail to meet (versus the yellow-lipped sea krait's ventrally meeting dark bands). The tail of the snake is paddle-shaped and adapted to swimming.

On average, the total length of a male is 875 mm (2 ft 10.4 in) long, with a 13 cm (5.1 in) long tail. Females are significantly larger, with an average total length of 1.42 m (4 ft 8 in) and a tail length of 145 mm (5.7 in).

Distribution and habitat

The yellow-lipped sea krait is widespread throughout the eastern Indian Ocean and Western Pacific. It can be found from the eastern coast of India, along the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and other parts of Southeast Asia, to the Malay Archipelago and to some parts of southern China, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The species is also common near Fiji and other Pacific islands within its range. Vagrant individuals have been recorded in Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. Six specimens have been found around the North Island of New Zealand between 1880 and 2005, suspected to have come from populations based in Fiji and Tonga. It is the most common sea krait identified in New Zealand, and second-most seen sea snake after the yellow-bellied sea snake - common enough to be considered a native species, protected under the Wildlife Act 1953.

Venom