Material Examined : 1 adult.

Description & Scalation : Body subcylindrical. Head broad, flattened on top, not distinct from neck. Eye with round pupil. Rostral higher than broad; an azygous shield separating the prefrontals; frontal very large. No loreal; 1 preocular in contact with posterior nasal; 2 postoculars; temporals 1+2. Scales smooth & imbricate, in 21-23 rarely 25 rows; supralabials 7-8 ( 3rd and 4th in contact with the eye ); infralabials 8, small, first 5 touching the first pair of genials; a double series of scales on lower jaw border posterior to second infralabial; ventrals 235, about four times as broad as long; subcaudals 47, paired; tail flat; anal divided.

Coloration : Light or dark bluish above, with 36-50, more or less equal-sized broad black bands above, yellowish or creamish below. Snout, upper lip scales and area above eye are yellow, rest of the head is black.

Natural History : Nocturnal and diurnal in habits. Seen on small rocky islands, while also found resting in crevices and coral reefs. According to the local inhabitants it can be seen in hundreds on small rocky islands during the breeding season. 33 speciemens were located in the month of June, on a small rocky island in North Andaman in the day time, all resting in the crevices. These snakes come to land mainly during nocturnal high tide. Good swimmer but crawls slowly on land. Feeds on eels and other fish. Comes to land to reproduce, lays 3-10 eggs in caves or crevices. Grows up to 1.7m.

Distribution - India : Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an isolated record from Kolkata. Elsewhere : Islands of the Asia-Pacific region.

External link : http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Laticauda&species=colubrina