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Faint-banded Sea Snake
Hydrophis belcheri
Hydrophis belcheri, commonly known as the faint-banded sea snake or Belcher's sea snake, is an extremely venomous species of sea snake. It has a timid temperament and would normally have to be subjected to severe mistreatment before biting. Usually those bitten are fishermen handling nets, although only one-quarter of those bitten are envenomated since the snake rarely injects much of its venom.
Although not much is known about the venom of this species, its LD50 toxicity in mice has been determined to be 0.24 mg/kg when delivered intramuscularly.
From the article Hydrophis belcheri on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Belcher's sea snake is of moderate size, ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 m (about 20–40 in) in adult length. Its thin body is usually chrome yellowish in colour with dark-greenish crossbands. The dorsal pattern does not extend onto the venter. The head is short and has bands of the same colours. Its mouth is very small but suitable for aquatic life. Its body, when viewed out of water, appears to have a faint yellow colour. Its scales are different from most other snakes in that they overlap each other. Each dorsal scale has a central tubercle. The body is strongly laterally compressed posteriorly. The ventral scales are very narrow, only slightly wider than the dorsal scales.
In human culture
Hydrophis comes from Greek ὕδωρ, hydōr = water + ὄφις, ophis = serpent. The specific name, belcheri, commemorates the Nova Scotian, Royal Navy Captain, later Admiral, Sir Edward Belcher KCB, RN (1799-1877) who collected the holotype.
Wikipedia: “Etymology”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Hydrophis belcheri in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 35226.