Description:
Adults measure roughly one meter average (males are somewhat shorter and longer females). The body presents a section oval, flattening strongly at the tail, giving it the form and function of an oar.
The head has a square profile with the flattened snout and shows primitive traits, with the structure of the typical upper jaw of the Elapidae family. Proteroglifas, fangs are medium-sized, and rigid located in earlier position.
The eyes are medium-sized, with the iris of bluish grey or grey mottled black and the round pupil with black color.
The nostrils are located in lateral position and have valves that allow close them during the dive.
The tongue is meat, lightly spotted black color, the tip of the fork is dirty or bluish white.
The head scales are large, regular and well-defined.
There are a whole rostral scale and 3 prefrontales (forming a great azygos shield). Scales absent loreales. Nasal scales separated by internasales.
The dorsal scales are smooth and overlapping, arranged in rows 21-25 in part half dthe body.
The ventral scales are large, wide and divide into number of 210-250. The anal scale is divided.
The females have two rows with 29-35 subcaudal scales and males 37-47.

The head is completely black except for the snout, upper lip and a strip that extends above the eyes to the storm, which are yellow.
The upper part of the body is grey, markings or blue; the belly is shades lighter, dirty white or cream.
From the neck to the tip of the tail, the whole of the body is surrounded by black bands (20-65) of something closer to the Fund and well-defined contours.


• Total length: 75-87 cm males, females 120-140 cm
• Tail length: males 130 mm, 145 mm females.
• Weight: About 1 Kg.

Biology:
They live in shallow tropical waters that surround the small coral islands, coral reefs and mangroves, usually with a substrate of sand or coral.
Well-endowed for swimming (they are capable of entering into full Ocean) prefer shallow tropical waters (up to 10 m pro)(fundidad) surrounding reefs, small islands of coral, and mangroves. They are mainly nocturnal but also them it can be observed feeding during the day.
This species has still a strong link with the Mainland, where spend roughly half of his life (in cycles of 10 days on average), still its still agile movements.
Coasts, mangroves, atolls and coral reefs are often the places chosen for resting, digestion, molting and reproduction (both mating and laying eggs).
Their food is always done in water, being the basis of its diet eels and morays, actively seeking between the cavities and crevices of reefs. Occasionally, they also feed on small fish.
L. colubrina is oviparous and lays its eggs in caves close to the sea but containing water sweet. Hatchlings and juveniles are very restricted to the water and land areas immediately adjacent to the water.
Most sea snakes are ovovivíparas and stop their young in the water, but Laticauda colubrina is oviparous and at any time of the year can put between 2 and40 eggs on Earth, either in the sand or simply under it, but always near a resource of fresh water, which the Cubs it and juveniles are heavily dependent. Populations of l. colubrina have fewer young than adults, possibly as a result of low fertility and high infant and juvenile mortality.

The courtship and mating occur also on Earth, where large concentrations of these snakes can be found in Islands relatively small during the breeding season.
These snakes are often carried long migration to their breeding places, where often return.

• Size of the implementation: Entre 2-40 eggs.
-• Incubation period: days
• Sexual maturity: 18 months for males, 18-24 months for females.
-• Longevity: years.

Comments:
Sea snakes are divided into two subfamilies and Laticaudinae Hydrophiinae.
Laticaudinae retains even some unit with the terrestrial environment, they are amphibious, oviparous and its ventral scales are functional for terrestrial locomotion.
Hydrophiinae are strictly aquatic and throughout its cyclelife unfolds at sea, acquiring the viviparismo as adaptation to this environment.

Laticauda colubrina is a snake with the most powerful poison in the world (to get an idea, their venom is 10 times stronger than that of a rattlesnake snake), however, are animals of nature quiet and docile, which rarely bite, even in self-defense. The majority of accidents usually happen between fishermen in the operation of lift and select catches of networks.

Their venom is composed of neurotoxins and myotoxins (which together cause a blockage in the transmission of the nervous impulse at the neuromuscular plate, and as a result muscle paralysis, respiratory paralysis, miolisis and death). It is estimated the LD50 around 0.34 to 0.60 mg per kg. Most of the sea snakes can produce 10-15 mg of venom.

Curiosidaes:
•The end of the tail has the same pattern of coloration (and somewhat the same way in dorsal view) as the head. When hunting, researching the Hollows of the reefs in search of prey, the tail is in raised position giving the feeling that the serpent está upside down, with the head raised and attentive. It seems that it is a defensive strategy to deceive potential predators and warn them of their potential bite.

• The lungs of these snakes are proportionately much larger than their relatives land, allowing them to spend long periods of time under water (from 15-30 minutes in a usual dive until almost two hours). On the other hand, it is estimated that these snakes skin absorbs about one fifth of the oxygen you need (cutaneous respiration) and removes almost all the carbon dioxide which produces.

•Etimología: Laticauda = Latin latus = wide, and cauda = tail, with reference to its broad, flat tail.
colubrina = Latin colubrinus = have the qualities of a snake.

Distribution:
Laticauda colubrina is the most widespread member of its genus; It extends from the Bay of Bengal through much of Asia, the Malaysian archipelago to New Guinea and many islands of the Western Pacific Ocean.
•Originaria of: Indian Ocean to the East of the India, Sry Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, Indonesia (Borneo) and MelanesIA and Polynesia. In the Solomon Islands, the Gulf of Thailand, Philippines, the Andaman Islands, the Nicobar Islands and to the coasts of Taiwan (China). In the Bay of Bengal, coasts of Malay Peninsula and archipelago Indus Australian New Guinea. In the Ryukyu Islands of Japan as well as in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and New Caledonia.
•Incierto: costas Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Similar:
• Laticauda crockery. (Slevin, 1934). (Crocker's is Snake, Crocker's is Krait, Rennell Island is Krait). Exclusively in the brackish water lake of you-Nggano, on the small island of Rennell, Solomon Islands archipelago.
• Laticauda frontalis. (De Vis, 1905) (Yellow-Lipped is Snake). Endemic to the archipelago of Vanuatu.
•Laticauda guineai.(Heatwole, Busack)(& Cogger, 2005). Guinea's is krait. Bava Island, near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
• Laticauda laticaudata (Linnaeus 1758) (Blackbanded Sea Krait). Pacific Ocean, Polynesia, Melanesia, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and in Queensland, Australia, it is found also in the Indian Ocean to the East of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. It is also found on the coasts of Fujian and Taiwan (China), in the Andaman Islands, Bay of Bengal and on the coast of the Malay Peninsula and archipelago Australian Indus to New Guinea.
• Laticauda schistorhynchus (Günther, 1874) (Flat-Tail Sea Snake). Native of the coast of Niue, island country in the Pacific Ocean.
• Laticauda semifasciata (Chinese Sea Snake, Black-banded sea krait). It lies in the South of the South China Sea, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, the Moluccan Islands and Samoa.

State of preservation:

• Status CITES:-
• IUCN Status: Least concern

Synonyms:
Hydrus Colubrinus SCHNEIDER 1799: 238
Coluber laticaudatus LINNAEUS 1758 (part.)
Anguis Platura LACÉPÈDE 1790 (fide HEATWOLE et al. 2005)
Platurus fasciatus LATREILLE, 1801
Platurus colubrinus - WAGLER, 1830
Coluber platycaudatus OKEN 1836
Hydrophis colubrina - SCHLEGEL, 1837
Hydrus colubrinus - BEGBIE 1846: 408 (?)
Laticauda 1847 CANTOR scutata (not of LAURENTI 1768)
Var fasciatus Platurus. colubrina - FISCHER 1856
Var laticaudatus Platurus. B. - GÜNTHER 1858 (part.)
Platurus colubrinus - FISCHER 1884: 50
Platurus colubrinus - FISCHER 1888
Platurus colubrinus - BOULENGER, 1896
Platurus VIS 1905: 48 frontalis
Laticauda colubrina - STEJNEGER, 1907: 406
Laticauda colubrina - SMITH 1943: 443
Laticauda colubrina - PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 140
Laticauda colubrina - LINER 1994
Laticauda colubrina - COX et to the. 1998: 33
Laticauda colubrina - COGGER 2000: 724
Laticauda frontalis - COGGER & HEATWOLE 2006
Laticauda colubrina - RASMUSSEN et to the. 2011