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Horned Sea Snake
Hydrophis peronii
Hydrophis peronii, commonly known as the horned sea snake, Peron's sea snake, and the spiny-headed seasnake, is a species of venomous snake in the subfamily Hydrophiinae of the family Elapidae. The species is endemic to the western tropical Pacific Ocean. It is the only sea snake with spines on the head. Like all other members of the family Elapidae, it is venomous. It is sometimes placed in its own genus Acalyptophis.
From the article Hydrophis peronii on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The spiny-headed seasnake is a medium-sized snake, with the diameter of the neck only one third to two fifths the diameter of the thickest part of the body. The head is small and the tail flattened laterally. The supraoculars are raised, and their free borders are pointed horn-like processes. This species reaches a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of up to 1.23 m (4.0 ft). Dorsally, it is grayish, pale olive, or tan, with dark crossbands, which are narrower than the spaces between them and taper to a point on the sides of the belly. Ventrally, it is uniform whitish or with a series of dark crossbars alternating with spots.
Range & habitat
Hydrophis peronii is found in the Gulf of Siam, Thailand, Vietnam, the South China Sea, the coast of Guangdong and Strait of Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, the Coral Sea Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Australia, (Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, & possibly New South Wales).
Wikipedia: “Geographic range”
What it does
Hydrophis peronii preys predominately upon gobies, but also upon other small fishes.
Wikipedia: “Diet”
Toxicity
As determined by laboratory tests on mice, the venom of Hydrophis peronii is among the most toxic sea snake venoms known. However, as of 2023 no human fatalities had been recorded.
Wikipedia: “Venom”
In human culture
The specific name, peronii, is in honor of François Péron, a French naturalist and explorer.
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 peronii 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 200394.