NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Yellow-lipped sea krait
Laticauda colubrina (Schneider, 1799)
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.
Pulau Kalampunian Damit, Pulau Tiga NP, Sabah, MALAYSIA Scanned slide from 2001
Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
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.
Wikipedia contributors, Yellow-lipped sea krait; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:38:07.268510+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Laticauda colubrina (Schneider, 1799)
- Name authority
- (Schneider, 1799)
- Common name
- Yellow-lipped sea krait
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Elapidae
- Genus
- Laticauda
- 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
- genusLaticauda
- speciesLaticauda colubrina (Schneider, 1799)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Laticauda. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese Sea SnakeLaticauda semifasciata (Reinwardt, 1837) | ElapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Laticauda guineai Heatwole, Busack & Cogger, 2005 | 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 |
|---|---|
| Anguis platura Lacépède, 1790 Lacépède, 1790 | ambiguous synonym |
| Coluber laticaudatus Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758 | ambiguous synonym |
| Coluber platycaudatus Oken, 1836 Oken, 1836 | synonym |
| Platurus fasciatus Latreille, 1801 Latreille, 1801 | synonym |
| Platurus frontalis de Vis, 1905 de Vis, 1905 | ambiguous synonym |
| Hydrus colubrinus Schneider, 1799 Schneider, 1799 | synonym |
| Laticauda scutata Cantor, 1847 Cantor, 1847 | ambiguous 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=Laticauda&species=colubrina 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.
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:6P2SW. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.