NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Black-banded sea snake
Hydrophis nigrocinctus Daudin, 1803
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Hydrophis nigrocinctus, or the black-banded sea snake, is a species of marine venomous snakes in the family Elapidae. There have only been three specimens discovered. The first was described in 1803, and was collected in the Bay of Bengal, Sundarbans, near Kolkata. The second specimen was caught in the Malay Archipelago, in 1896. Over a century later, the third specimen was rediscovered in February 2015, and described in 2024. This also marked a century since black-banded sea snakes had been sighted in Bangladesh. The third specimen was found in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, namely, the island Dublar Char.
Wikipedia contributors, Hydrophis nigrocinctus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:03:40.396304+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Hydrophis nigrocinctus Daudin, 1803
- Name authority
- Daudin, 1803
- Common name
- Black-banded sea snake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Elapidae
- Genus
- Hydrophis
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
- infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
- familyElapidae
- subfamilyHydrophiinae
- genusHydrophis
- speciesHydrophis nigrocinctus Daudin, 1803
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Hydrophis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Peters' Sea SnakeHydrophis bituberculatus Peters, 1873 | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Slender-necked SeasnakeHydrophis coggeri (Kharin, 1984) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Annulated Sea SnakeHydrophis cyanocinctus Daudin, 1803 | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Elegant or bar-bellied seasnakeHydrophis elegans (Gray, 1842) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hydrophis hendersoni (Boulenger, 1903) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Inornate Sea SnakeHydrophis inornatus (Gray, 1849) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Pacific seasnakeHydrophis pacificus Boulenger, 1896 | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Spiny-headed seasnakeHydrophis peronii (Duméril, 1853) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Pelagic Sea SnakeHydrophis platurus (Linnaeus, 1766) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lake Taal SnakeHydrophis semperi Garman, 1881 | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Stoke’s seasnakeHydrophis stokesii (Gray, 1846) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Kloss' Sea SnakeHydrophis klossi Boulenger, 1912 | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Disteira walli Kharin, 1989 Kharin, 1989 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Hydrophis&species=nigrocinctus Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:6MJT6. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.