📸 PhotoPhoto: Totti · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Chinese Sea Snake
Laticauda semifasciata (Chinese Sea Snake · エラブウミヘビ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A female's snout-to-vent length of 1.19 m is about 2/3 the height of an adult human (Comparison).
- 💡 Of 219 individuals dissected in the Orchid Island study, 2/3 (67%) had empty stomachs, indicating that this sea snake does not feed very frequently.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Chinese Sea Snake is a sea snake living in coastal waters of the western Pacific from southern Japan to Samoa, with records from Korean coastal waters as well.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Females have a snout-to-vent length of about 1.19 m, much longer than males (about 0.81 m). The tail measures about 115 mm in both sexes.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It feeds on fish; in a study on Orchid Island (Lanyu), Taiwan, dissection of 219 individuals identified fish from 16 families in their stomachs. Sixty-seven percent had empty stomachs, and breeding appears to take place in island caves.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
It is listed as "Neolbeun-tti-keun-badabaem" (Korean name) in the National List of Species of Korea, and Korean coastal waters are included in its distribution in the Reptile Database.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List NT (2010) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/176721/7290432
- • IUCN Red List category NT — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 3SLB3
- • iucnredlist.org — 7290432
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000235721 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000235721
- • wikidata.org — Q2372555
- • reptile-database.reptarium.cz — species
- • zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw — 403.pdf
- • sealifebase.se — SpeciesSummary.php
- • species.nibr.go.kr — general-search
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Michael Scroggie, from original photograph by Gary M. Stolz, USFWS (original photograph in public domain). · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Notechis ater niger)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.